the real goodwill

I will admit it.

Not only do I build my own furniture, but I shop at second-hand stores, too. Oh, and I get really excited about it prior to going and then when I've secured my deals, I text close friends to tell them.

I was involved in a discussion recently with people at work about shopping at thrift stores. Someone threw it out there, the other people around were awkward about it, I dove into the conversation, though the prideful part of me didn't really want to.

I can easily say it's a scar from my childhood and that wouldn't be far from the truth. But I can't say that now. I'm 28. The past is the past and the present is what I make of it.

What is it about equating your level of success with where you shop?

Or your religious affiliations with the length of your hair (as I did this week)?

If you saw me today, you would have seen me in my brand name jeans and assumed that I shopped there and perhaps spent too much money on them when, in fact, I paid $7.

I told my co-workers: it's not that I can't spend $80 on a pair of jeans, it's that I choose not to.

Earlier this week, someone commented on how long my hair's getting, and so I frantically asked a friend if I looked like a Baptist. She gave me an "eh, kinda" look and then added that if I were in a skirt, she'd think I was Mormon.

Me, being the insenstive dumbass that I am sometimes, posted it on Facebook. The comments I received from a friend reined in my judgmental thought process.

Why do I still do that?

I'm judging myself based on appearances, and paranoid that other people are making assumptions about my religious affiliations based on the length of my hair.

I'm afraid that if people know I shop at thrift stores that they'll make assumptions about my financial status.

Well, this is my public liberation.

I shop at thrift stores.
I build my own furniture.
I have long hair.

(and if you must know, I spent $35 for two pairs of jeans, a skirt and two pairs of work shoes. SCORE!)