In Continuum.

High school students have the inability to recognize just how stupid they are at times. I know, because I had the inability to recognize just how stupid I was, back then when I was also a high school student. And yes, that is me in the corner, looking like a full-blown idiot. A wire was loose in loose in my head at that time, and just looking at myself induces strange spasms around my body right now. In retrospect, I was so stupid, that I would give myself a tight slap if I do get the chance to travel back in time. Speaking of which, I dreamed of traveling back in time to meet myself the other night, and that conversation was rather interesting to say the least. Anyway, high school students find it difficult to process the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they are stupid. We thought we were the center of the universe, though nobody ever found it strange that you can't be in the center of the universe if everybody else thought the very same way about themselves. Either we have multiple centers, or everybody was incredibly stupid. The latter option seems a lot more probable, and thus I opt for that one. In truth, high school was the time when we thought we knew everything about everything. The idea that not knowing is the most essential step to knowing never actually crossed our heads, ever. 

One of the best way to notice high school stupidity is through high school fashion. It doesn't matter if you were a high school student in my time, or a high school student right now. This unique part of the population has their own unique way of wearing just about anything, and it doesn't really matter if they look absurd or not. In their eyes, if they think that they look awesome, then they automatically assume that others would think that they look awesome. It is a faulty reasoning, or a fallacy if you will, but it doesn't matter that much to them because the word isn't in their vocabulary bank just yet. High school students do the strangest things to make themselves stand out from the crowd, and it is always interesting to observe their sad attempts to look fashionable in all ways that are pathetic. I know, because I was one of those idiots that roamed the streets of town, thinking that I was cool with my school uniform tucked out and the first button left opened. That was what my peers were doing, which was why I followed the trend. That is what sheep do, the majority of them follow the sheep with the most beautiful curls. We all looked incredibly ridiculous, but we all looked elsewhere than ourselves in the mirror. 

I am sure you guys remember those orange combs, the thin ones with a sharpened end that gangsters would slot in between the flaps of their wallets. That is what they did with those combs, and they'd be sticking out from their back pockets like a thorn. It was a quintessential aspect of a high school stupidity, because it was what the boys did to maintain their hair. It wasn't really my thing back then, but a lot of boys in my school had one of those combs to maintain their gelled hair, those neat center-partings that look so nineteen ninety, in retrospect. They'd use the sharpened end to pick the hair, just so that both sides of their hair would be symmetrical to one another. It sounds ridiculous right now, but I am pretty sure a lot of male readers have done stupid things like that before. Take a trip down into the male restrooms in any schools, and you would see rows of urinals and boys combing their hair with that type of combs. I remember seeing this guy at a local arcade, dancing to a Para Para machine while holding one of those combs in each hand. Having a center-parting, somehow, became a fashion statement back then, and it's just stupid. 

Boys wanted their pants to be as long and baggy as possible, while the girls wanted their skirts to be as short and tight as possible. They were the exact opposites, and every school pretty much didn't allow that to happen. The boys couldn't wear their pants under a certain level around their waists, and the girls couldn't wear their skirts above a certain length from their knees. There were a lot of rules and regulations, but it's not like the high school students could be bothered. For the boys, we would pull our pants all the way down to our hip bones, and then pull our shirts out just to ease the incredible bulge in our pants. It somehow felt like we were wearing three layers of underwear or something, and every boy had the urge to pull them out for no apparent reasons. By the way, I don't think the expression "tuck out" makes any sense, whatsoever. It is an oxymoron by itself, or maybe not "oxy", just "moron". Anyway, that was what the boys did, and all those who tucked their shirts in and had pants that were too tight or short were known as the nerds or the geeks. It isn't something you want to be known for in a dog eat dog world like a high school, you wanted to be a part of the predators. 

Initially, there wasn't a rule that regarded itself with socks. Just as long as they were white, we could wear any types of socks back then. Suddenly, however, people started wearing ankle socks, and most of the students looked as if they weren't wearing any socks at all. The teachers from school got mad one day, and they didn't like how the students were seemingly "sock-less". Some of us didn't have ankle socks though, I don't suppose it was easily available back then when I was in high school. That was also why somebody came up with the brilliant idea of pulling our socks down over our heels just to turn an ordinary pair of socks into ankle socks. It made our shoes feel a tad bit tighter, but suddenly we were "hip and cool", supposedly. It was more comfortable than usual, but like I said, the school didn't like it very much. That was also why in the new issue of student handbook in the following year, a special arrow was printed to point at the socks. Long white socks that reached halfway up the shins, and people weren't very happy with that rule at all. I didn't like the idea of the school limiting what we wore to school either, especially when it comes to little things like the color of our shoes or the type of socks. It is bad enough that we resemble a Communist society with the standardizes uniforms, now we have to have everything else look the same too? 

One of the most ridiculous things I have ever done with my school uniform was with the belt that we wore. I have done the pants thing, the socks thing, and the center-parting thing. But I don't suppose anybody has really seen the belt thing, and it didn't really catch on with the rest of the high school students because it was genuinely stupid. To have other high school students say that you look stupid, you've got to be stupid. Timothy came up with that idea I remember, and we tried it out one afternoon after school when we went out. My school's belt wasn't the type with holes, but the kind with a knob on the buckle. I am sure that there is a technical name for belts like that, but let's just say that you have to pull the excess length of the belt through the buckle and then locking the lever to tightened it around your waist. That's usually how you wear such belts, but we decided to wear it in a way that's just, well, plain stupid. This is what we did: We took the belt and flipped it the other way round so that the buckle faced towards our body. We then took the other end of the belt without the buckle and pulled it through the first loops on either side of the zip. We pulled until the buckle touched one of the loops, then we'd pull the other end of the belt through the buckle until you get an obscene amount of extra length on one end. This end would then dangle around our legs when we walked, and it was supposed to look cool. You can start rolling your eyes now. 

I was on the bus home today, wearing my own clothes instead of a standard set of uniforms. University life, a great way to show off what clothes you have at home, like church every Sunday. There I was, minding my own business, when a group of boys from Beatty Secondary School boarded the bus with their shirts tucked out. I have no issue with boys looking somewhat untidy with their uniforms - when else are they going to get their breather? What bothered me, however, was how they tied their ties to make themselves look "cooler". A few years ago, there was a trend of wearing t-shirts inside of boys' uniforms - what's up with that? In a summer-country like Singapore, you wear two layers of clothes and you think that is fashionable? It is not just unfashionable, it is impractical as well, and it certainly didn't make a lot of sense. Today, those high school kids had their ties tied in such a way that it barely reached their belly buttons. They looked like ties meant for kindergarten children, but there they were, wearing them proudly like clowns. I smirked, and then remembered that I was just as stupid as them when I was in high school as well. And then I smiled, thinking about the old times and, right now. 

Sure enough, we've all went through stages of fashion disasters in our lives. I do not claim to be some sort of fashion guru right now, I think Jeremy might come closer to that title amongst my male friends, to be honest. Yet, I know what looks stupid, and I know long belts and short ties are just retarded. I remember making fun of Eric, my classmate back then who wore incredibly tight and short long pants back then, so short that we'd be able to see his socks when he stood up straight. Still, it's all a part of learning and growing up I suppose, and you grow wiser as you come along. It gives you something to laugh about when you are older I suppose, something to share with your friends about. It is kind of like how the 80s had their fashion disasters and the 90s had their fashion disasters. It is like how old people in Singapore are always wearing the same flowery dresses which, till this day, I have yet to figure out where they got them from. High school students have their unique ways of dressing, and the evolution of their fashion is never going to stop, no matter how much dumber it might look. And with that, I smile, honestly and with much glee.