Put me in, Coach

Dress: Connected Apparel;

Hat: Scala Pronto;

Belt: vintage, Highland & Ponce 

(Calivintage giveaway);

Shoes: gift, from Philippines;

Bag: Fossil, thrifted.

I was never a team sports kind of girl growing up. I was incredibly shy and more of the academic, bookworm type. My two-year stint in rec cheerleading ended in eighth grade when I realized that high school cheering involved acrobatics that I knew my limbs would never be able to perform, and that, because of my size at the time, I would always be cajoled into being at the top of the pyramid, which was always a terrifying prospect. I got dropped once and refused to let my teammates hold my legs up again. It's hard to trust your weight (and life) in the teeny arms of 13-year-olds.

Mostly though, I spent my adolescent free time on the sidelines. My younger brother and sister did many team sports through soccer and baseball, so I was the older sibling who tagged along whenever she had nothing better to do on a weeknight. I'd usually bring a book or a notebook and sketch or write Harriet-the-Spy-esque observations down ("Gosh, these coaches are soooo loud. Who cares if Bobby hits the ball off the tee? Big freakin' whoop.") I thought my jots were so deep at the time. One time I spied on a player's mom in the same stands and looked over her shoulder at her own notebook. She was writing a poem about how disconnected she felt to the team mom experience and how absurd it all was sometimes. I felt a kinship to her, even if I never said so at the time.

But those afternoons were always great, because sometimes I could convince my mom and dad to buy me sunflower seeds or Sour Punch candy straws from the concession stand. And when I got bored of writing and reading, I had to find other ways to amuse myself at the park, which generally consisted of writing my name in the dust on empty fields or hanging upside down on the monkey bars. I sometimes played in the small woods nearby until it was time to leave the glow of the stadium lights.

So I guess when I saw this empty field, I just couldn't resist taking my outfit photos there. I grew up in this sport, even if I didn't play it.

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