A Day in the Life of my Favorite Jeans
My hands graze the faded stitching as I nervously finger the belt loops of my favorite pair of jeans. I sit and cross my legs and the denim grows tighter around my thighs. Today I wear them with a black sleeveless tee and Birkenstock sandals — my go-to uniform for tackling day-to-day life. My hair was pulled back in a top-knot, before I took it down, then pulled it back again — another nervous habit.
It is my last first day of school, and not the only “first” in the list of adventures on which my loose, faded and cropped blue jeans accompanied me. You’ve heard the phrase “if these walls could talk,” but if these jeans could play back memories, they could tell the story of my life. Their only break in wear is when the spills and smells of each experience are cleaned off in the wash cycle. Even then, they rarely make it back into the bottom drawer of my dresser, neatly folded with my other pants, because they usually get yanked straight out of the dryer and onto my body.
Whether paired with a white button down and flats or a knit sweater and ankle boots, these jeans have stood the test of both time and changing fashion. And today, another milestone will be symbolically stitched into their long history of first dates and concerts and road trips, nights on the town and nights in with friends, and the countless moments in between that define me.
But today feels different. Today marks something new. The very last first day of my college career is the start of an adult life that will bring different kinds of adventures, and something tells me faded $6 clearance jeans from the Gap won’t play a huge part in as many of them.
