College is a time for people to express themselves and develop and discover who they are. One way that college students can express themselves on campus is by having the freedom to dress how they want. Before college, I spent 12 years of my life wearing a uniform five days out of a week. So, I was ecstatic to have the chance to wear what I wanted to and not be forced to wear a tucked in polo like a Steve Urkel wannabe, because there is no way I have his swagger. Walking on campus, you can see so many types of people and get a sense of their personality by what they are wearing. Some college students go to class dressed to the nines, and then there are other students who attend a 12 p.m. lecture in pajamas. With the freedom to wear whatever as students, we must have common sense and discretion when choosing our clothes because as adults, all of our actions reflect on us even our clothing choices. 

Comfort and professionalism are the two basic styles I see on this campus with a wide range of levels for both the categories. I feel that one’s style also progresses with each new classification. Sometimes casual outfits turn into more professional ones when you go from 100 level classes to 400 level. Some people go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. As the struggle gets harder, their clothing shows their haggard mental and physical state. An evolution of dress wear can also be seen in a semester from the bright-eyed makeup every day and planned outfits of the first week. You can know when it is testing season simply by looking at the outfits on campus. When the number of hats you see on girls increases after so many all-nighters and daily use of dry shampoo and a prayer, the end result is hiding the beast with a cap. 

With the chance to wear what I want, comes a lot of planning and strategy. I am a creature of comfort. If my outfit takes more than five minutes to put on, then you better believe I am not wearing it. While there is no uniform for this university, my unofficial uniform is just as constant as my unofficial, official seat in class. My lecture uniform consists of “Norts,” which is the street term for Nike shorts, an oversized pocket T-shirt and a hat because hats make life better. This outfit has a design specifically built for comfort and laziness without looking too much like a gremlin walking around campus. This outfit was designed to make one feel cozy in that cold 8 a.m. desk chair using your larger-than-needed shirt as a blanket by lamp-shading, which is when the hem of the shirt goes past the hem of the shorts. Pocket T-shirts are like the Mary Poppins bag of shirts. You can use that front pocket as a new bag to put pensin or to stash your phone and headphones, so you can walk and listen to music without holding it. A little variation to this routine involves leggings and Chacos. After all, Chacos are my comrades that never let me down when hiking up the D Vickers stairs.

Comfort is the key to the success of surviving class for myself, but sometimes a basic wardrobe is not appropriate for all campus functions. That is when a student brings out their A-game business outfits, or in my case, not leggings. This style upgrade is basically like a Pokémon evolution of my clothing because it’s the same thing but a little better. I dress in a cute outfit of real pants, also known as jeans, a nice top, and booties or sandals, depending on the semester. The evolved outfit is restricted to special occasions such as presenting in class or going to my internship. I have a philosophy that after my four years of being in this little lion bubble in society, I will have to dress professionally every day and be a 9-to-5 real adult. So, why not look like a lazy sloth while I can? A problem I have is that I think of the university as home a little too much now that I live here. I have no problem with going to the union in mismatched socks and Chacos, a combo almost as tacky as Crocs with sock, but I also wear slippers at night to the library like it is my living room. 

University pride is also great to represent when in class, especially those classes with professors that literally stop lecturing when they see purple and gold in their peripheral. They’ll ask you to leave class because you’re wearing a Louisiana State University shirt. An item students need in college is rain boots because the drainage system on campus is definitely not the best in the nation, and you need them unless you like wet socks. Incoming freshmen, take heed to this warning because on a hard rain day, freshmen parking becomes more like a mini lake than parking spots.

Another big factor of campus clothing is the terrain of this campus. It’s a big campus, so if someone commits to uncomfortable shoes such as heels for a day, props to you. Wearing any shoe with a lift guarantees you can skip leg day at the gym because your thighs and calves will be burning by 11 a.m. Plus, some of the buildings on campus are not suitable. Wearing a skirt or dress on campus is a struggle because you have to always check if you are flashing someone when your book sack pulls up your skirt. Or the never-ending stairs that make you pause to adjust your outfit situations because some parts of the outfit are not meant for the public, such as your undergar4ments. The different lecture rooms come with different seating that is not always skirt friendly, especially those chairs connected to desks like in Fayard. 

The moral of this is no matter your style, college allows people the chance to be who they are and express that through their clothing. College is full of diverse, free-thinking people. This is one of the few places where society’s judgment is minimum. An example is when a guy can dress as Santa to ride a  scooter on campus, and no one cares. So if you want to look like Kim Kardashian during fashion week on a Monday, or just roll out of bed and wear pajamas to class, do what you want because we should try to make college as fun as possible and wear what makes us happy. After all, you are the one sitting in that 75-minute long lecture, so you might as well wear what you love.