Here’s something I get to say for the last time after 4 years: Graduations coming up in a month. Finally, all the years of enduring boring classes, months of studying for exams, and days of merely getting by my classes will finally pay off – in one sense or another. As “D-day” approaches, there is but one final exam that awaits us all: hunting for that perfect graduation dress… and by “us” I mean us girls. The same way the celebration of a debut serves as a rite of passage, signifying our readiness to enter into womanhood, I believe that a graduation is also seen as a rite of passage of sorts. Not to be sexist or anything, but you have to admit, women are more “invested” at finding that perfect attire to match such joyous and triumphant occasion. Hazah! Where men just need to find that expensive tux and worry about what color “matches their eyes” (I say that with sarcasm), women, on the other hand, slave hours of going through mall stalls, surfing through countless online catalogues, fitting – and unfitting – dresses that would make them say to themselves: “This. This is the dress that is worth 4 years of slaving through tears and sweat for”. Pretty superficial, aren’t we? In one way, I envy men for not having to worry as much as we do. Well, that may just be me talking.  

So… here’s a little fact about me: I hate shopping for clothes.

I do, however, like to dress up. Ironic isn’t it? ‘Is there a difference?’ you might wonder. Well, for me, shopping takes [a lot more] effort, dare I say, talent, whereas dressing up just requires making do with what you have. I never had that eye for what some people call “class”, “elegance”, or as what my mother simply calls “taste”. It was always hard for me to visualize how one blouse would fit over a skirt without me having to try them on. That’s why I like dressing up better. Other than just having to make do with what you already have, sometimes you just have to look for something based on a given image – like cosplay. There’s no effort into thinking what fits what or what should go with what, you just have to worry how something will fit you. So whenever I go “shopping”, I prefer being alone rather than being with company since I usually take hours just going through stalls, trying on clothes, then going to other stalls, only to find myself going back to the one I originally went to in the first place before I could find something that I’d actually buy. Add to that the fact that there’s this creeping voice at the back of my head, saying I might find something “better” other than the one I already had in my hands. Some people would find my routine tiring, others just find it frustrating. 

Quite frankly, it frustrates me too.

Where was I going with this?

Ahh.

I went on that mini-adventure to find that dress – the dress that would “materialize 4 years of hard work”. I had no idea what I wanted to wear, no idea what I should be looking for, and on top of that, I had my mother with me. After we passed by one of those Japanese two-dollar stores, we went ahead and find my dress. We started out hopeful as we entered stall one. Then stall two. Then three. Then fourteen. A complete Saturday nightmare. Yeesh. Don’t get me wrong though. I don’t have high standards on clothes; but I do have peculiar tastes. I like clothes that look simple, classy, and versatile – something I could wear again outside of graduation. Do you know how hard it is to want something versatile and at the same time have the inability to imagine how two things go together? It’s like a mouse to imagine what cat fur would feel like.

We were walking for a good five hours before I found “the one”. I could see the sigh of relief on my mother’s eyes. I just felt relief on the fact that we won’t have to it all over again tomorrow. We finally paid (bonus on the fact that it wasn’t that expensive), treat ourselves to some nice frozen yogurt, then went home. All was well, and the kingdom would live to see another day. The end. I’ll probably post some photos on graduation day. I can’t wait!

Side note: Where I lack the talent to shop for clothes, I do make up for it with my talent to find things I absolutely do not need but want anyways. Just take a look at this keychain! (I named it Mankey because of obvious reasons -- it's a monkey-keycain).

I found it on our way to pay for the things my mother bought for Halloween at that two- [SGD] dollar store. We were queuing up (there were surprisingly a lot of people looking for Halloween décor), when this little cutie caught my attention. At first I was like “I don’t need it. Plus, it isn’t that cute, right?”. Then I was having some kind of withdrawal and I was just “Nope. I NEED THIS. It’s a monkey bell keychain. Who doesn’t need this?”. If you can’t tell, it’s inspired from the three wise monkeys – hear no evil, see no evil speak no evil. I went home more satisfied having bought my monkey keychain than having bought my dress. Something must be wrong with me.