Every time I step on campus, I notice one thing: People dress horribly for class.
I don’t personally care about how other people dress. How someone else dresses has no personal effect on me, except for the effect on my eyes. The way someone chooses to dress is entirely superficial, but I think you should care to some extent what people think about you.
It seems as if everyone dresses the same way. Guys wear gym shorts and fraternity shirts, or shirts from their hometown. Girls wear gym shorts or yoga pants with an oversized T-shirt. They also all have the same white and red South Carolina sweatshirt. Our campus community looks homogeneous and doesn’t express diversity in the way it should.
I am sure you have heard the saying, “Dress to impress.” I think a more reasonable understanding of this is to dress to how you want to be perceived. If you want people to take you more seriously, dress a bit nicer.
If you don’t care about how you dress, you should think about how it affects the image of the student body. If the student body sees everyone else put no effort into their appearance, they assume that they don’t have to put effort in theirs.
Students and teachers will judge you by how you dress. Even if dressing up is entirely superficial, it is a system we all buy into. What if, on the off chance, a professional comes into your class that you want to meet and you are wearing pajamas. What kind of impression is that going make?
I find it ironic that I see people constantly browsing shopping sites on their laptop during class but dressing so poorly. Why does no one wear the clothes to class that they are wasting their class time buying?
You also feel better when you dress nicer. Dopamine is released when you are wearing nice clothes, especially ones in colors that make you happy. It also feels great to flex your new Jordan 1s and Yeezys on everyone.
For those who dress poorly, at least wear jeans or khaki shorts. Unless it is more than 90 degrees outside, you don’t have much of an excuse to wear gym shorts. Please don’t wear cargo shorts to class, ever.
I hope this changes the way you dress to class tomorrow. Wear something nice and you will see the benefits of it.