Clothed in Memories

This weekend I conquered the task of switching out my spring/summer and fall/winter wardrobe.  Which I realized doesn't actually include a lot of switching, just mostly adding.  I still wear tanks and short sleeved shirts under cardigans, and if I add tights, boots, and a jacket, lots of my summer dresses work in the winter.  So I add sweaters, vests, long sleeved shirts, and winter skirts and dresses, and only put away shorts and swimsuits.  Since I have a lot of clothes and not a lot of closet space, all of this "switching out" requires lots of rearranging and using space creatively.  Now where am I going with all of this?  There is a point.  As I was surrounded by clothes for the better part of Saturday afternoon I realized that clothes are like a silky, shiny, fuzzy, cozy, soft, knitted, faded, comfortable, wearable scrapbook!  Let me explain...

Before I could begin putting clothes away I needed to do a bunch of laundry, which then required me to fold a bunch of laundry.  Usually I'll fold clothes while watching TV but this time I was just in my bedroom doing it.  Since I wasn't paying attention to a show, I was paying more attention to my t-shirts, and realized they could mostly be clumped into three categories: Milligan, Virginia Tech, and The Well, and all of these shirts brought back lots of memories.  Milligan shirts brought back memories of soccer games, homecoming, and all the crazy shenanigans that came with being an RA.  Virginia Tech shirts took me to Lane Stadium cheering on the Hokies, sometimes under the sun and one time from under a raincoat.  Well shirts reminded me of special Wednesday night services, watching countless intramural games, and crazy freshman events.  And then there were a few other memorable shirts, like the special shirt I took to China to wear on The Great Wall, and shirts from various 5ks.

Homecoming, Fall 2007

The Sutton RAs opening for Sutton Star Search, Fall 2007 (I'm the one of the far right).

Amanda Mae, Me, and Amanda, Fall 2009.

Me and all of the OMG - Amanda, Brittany, Emily, Melanie, and Amanda Mae, Fall 2010.

Chelsea, me, and Samantha goofing off at The Well photo booth, Winter 2011.

Hannah, me, and Chelsea at Cupcake Wars, Fall 2011.

China! Summer 2011.

After all of my clean laundry was put away it was time to make some more room in my closet for my winter clothes.  I realized that removing all of the bridesmaids dresses that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of would free up some space.  I decided to move them to the over-the-door rack that I have all of my scarves on.  They could go on the bottom level of hooks, and the scarves could just go over them on the top level of hooks.  So needless to say, there were lots of fun memories with those dresses from my college roommate's, best friends', and sister's weddings.

College roommate Mackenzie's wedding ~ June 7th, 2008.

College friend Scottie's wedding ~ June 19th, 2010.

We partied hard at this wedding, as evidenced by my fist pumping and classic "duck lips" dancing face.

Lifelong friend Ashley's wedding ~ March 12, 2011.

Amanda would be next!

Blogging buddies!  And those are the same style dresses as Scottie's wedding, just a different color obviously.

Amanda's wedding ~ July 3rd, 2011.

Love these girls!

College friend Jessica's wedding ~ August 9th, 2011.

See, dancing duck lips. I can't not do it.

After I hung all those dresses up, I hung the scarves back up, and one sticks out as being special.  It's from Kenya and Jillian got it for me when she went there on a mission trip last summer.  I'm sure there's a picture somewhere of me wearing it, but I couldn't track one down.

At this point I was finally ready to unpack winter clothes, and some other memorable pieces I uncovered were the snow boots I was wearing the day I was hiding under a big tree (sneakily) taking pictures of Jonathan proposing to Amanda.

And my tacky Christmas sweater which I first bought for when our RA staff took pictures to make Christmas  cards.  We gave them to all the girls in our building and also mailed them to the President and administration of the college!

Well those are just some of the memorable clothes that I folded and unpacked.  And again you might be asking, "What's the point of all of this?"  Well, I really believe that sometimes clothes can be more than just clothes.  What about you?  Are there clothes that bring back special memories?