Member-only story
Dress for Yourself — Not for Anyone Else.
You are your own runway. Work it!
I hate looking like everyone else. While I like styles and trends, I always try to put my own spin on what the masses are wearing. When I was a teen, I worked my first job in high school. It was in a Junior Achievement Program that helped students become entrepreneurs. Once we completed the program, we received two hundred dollars. For a poor city kid being raised by a single mom, that two hundred dollars felt like two million.
When I received the money, I was over the moon. I never had so much money in my life! I kept a piggy bank with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters — but paper money was hard to come by. If my mom wasn’t paying bills or buying groceries, she had to clothe my brother and I. There wasn’t much left over even for my mom.
With the money, my first instinct was to spend it. I wanted to go shopping in Downtown Crossing. At the time, the trendiest stores were Tello’s, Rainbows, and Filene’s/Filene’s Basement. There were other stores such as Marshalls, Jordan Marsh, and The Limited. Prices were much lower back in the 90s, so I knew my money would go far.
But I knew I should also save some of the money. There was a part of me that didn’t want to see the money disappear too quickly. I was the type of kid that wanted to enjoy something as long as…
