University Stripe: First Days of School

LL Bean has restocked the online shop and is once again offering the University Stripe. It's not in trim fit, so size down. I don't mind billowy shirts, well, semi-billowy shirts (just as long as my nips are out for everyone to see, but you already knew that). If you're wearing a blazer and you tuck your shirt in, the billowy-ness is cut down. Because of the extra room, I'd say that regular fit shirts are more comfortable than fitted shirts and end up looking fine with a trim jacket and pants.

I had a LL Bean university stripe purchased for my first year of boarding school. It was red like the picture. I was pretty proud of it because it seemed to go with every tie I owned and I could occasionally get away with it on school tie/white shirt/green blazer school days. Sometime that fall, I was wearing my white oxford and I saw my Korean roommate, called David, wearing a red university stripe oxford. I knew he didn't own a red university stripe oxford. We didn't talk and certainly didn't get along. David played dating simulators, didn't wear deodorant, and screamed loudly when he lost Starcraft. There were weeks where I wouldn't hear him speak English. It's a shame really, as it seemed all the other Korean students got along with us Americans and would even speak English amongst themselves. Bad egg, I suppose. He was good friends with the other Koreans but they would make fun of him and tell us that his mother paid for his education by whoring herself out, which we found entertaining. I checked my drawers later that day and couldn't find my university stripe.

I asked David about it that night after cross-country practice. He acted like he couldn't understand English, even though he understood how to tell people to "fuck off". Frustrated, when I had a free period the next day, I went through his drawers. I couldn't find my shirt anywhere. I never saw my university stripe oxford again. He certainly didn't wear it. David dropped out at the end of the year and I never saw him again. Since I'm ordering a new one, here's to you David, I hope life is treating you well and I hope your mom isn't actually a whore.