My Favorite Shirt | Teen Ink

My Favorite Shirt MAG

January 19, 2008
By Anonymous

Love. It’s a simple but overused word. I love you. I love this song! I absolutely loved that movie! The word doesn’t mean much anymore, not to most. Some people scoff at it. We throw it around like a used shirt, wearing it because it’s comfortable, safe, and secure, but never truly understanding why we have it. We lend it out, forget about it, and years later, we think, “Hey, I really liked that shirt.”

But do we care? No. It’s probably gone now, thrown away because of a rip or sold for $3 at a garage sale. We forget; it doesn’t matter after that.

Then we see the world fall apart. From the safety of our living rooms we watch amateur video on the news or Internet, and sometimes we feel so helpless and alone we’re not sure what to do. We cry for the inhumanity, scream for the injustice, and wonder why the world is this way. We think we can change the world; we know we want to help those who need it most … then we remember that T-shirt we threw out years ago.

We want it back; we fight and scramble for it. We go out and buy new shirts, try them on, but none seems to fit. We’ve lost it – we’ve lost love. We are unnerved for a bit; we sit alone and beat ourselves up for letting it go. Then we just we shrug it off. We say, “I’ll do it later” or “I’m too busy.” I’m guilty of it too: “I don’t have the right resources” or “I’m too young” or “No one will care.” And it seems as if no one does. With high school students only bent on the next party or who’s dating whom, you wonder if, in the end, their shirts were ever worn.

Is my generation going to save the world? We try, a small group of us, but our shirts are faded among the bright colors of greed and the everyday and the wanting. We are pushed into the background. We try to push our way through the crowds, and we truly wonder: where has the love gone?

I don’t want my love to fade; though my shirt is tattered and worn, I wear it daily. I am honest and open, and when I say that simple, dead, four-letter word, I mean it. I know I’ve made mistakes with it in the past and I almost threw my shirt away; I carry it carefully now. It’s close to my heart, where it’s meant to be. I do lend it out every once in a while – I let those who need it try it on and feel the safety that I feel. I leave them pieces when I go, but my shirt never seems to tear. It stays just as simple as it ever was.

When the time comes, I will stand alone in this world and stare into the eyes of those with the shirts of greed and want and lust, and I will know that even though mine is not the most beautiful shirt in the crowd, it’s among the best.



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This article has 258 comments.


EmmaRae26 said...
on Jan. 13 2012 at 3:30 pm
This Almsot Made Me Cry Cause I Just Went Threw A Bad Break Up, This Is So Amazingly Good, You Have A Future In Writing!

ItsGabbi_Yo said...
on Jan. 10 2012 at 9:35 am
This piece was inspiring, and I loved the comparison of the shirt and the meaning of love. I think a lot of people can relate to it.

on Jan. 10 2012 at 7:10 am
NohaBooyan BRONZE, New York, New York
4 articles 3 photos 27 comments
I second him :)

on Jan. 9 2012 at 10:56 am
Ryan.J.Campos BRONZE, Nope Central, Illinois
2 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
'If i shall die, let me walk beside you, so you don't have to face the worlds problems on your own, and i'll be there for you , no matter what, i love you.'

reallly good, showing the concepts of inhumanity and love, good job, should write another one.

on Dec. 25 2011 at 2:39 am
NohaBooyan BRONZE, New York, New York
4 articles 3 photos 27 comments
overwhelming.

on Dec. 9 2011 at 10:08 pm
writers_revenge BRONZE, Newport News, Virginia
1 article 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
I think that I'm so psychotic and so mentally ill that if I could tap into that I could do something really interesting.
Megan Fox

Every day i think the same thing as you. everyone screams i LOVE you but they don't mean it. thank you for sharing your amazing writing and finally sating the issue about LOVE.

on Dec. 9 2011 at 6:53 am
maddiemaaddie BRONZE, Kuala Lumpur, Other
2 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
Things change, stuff happens, life goes on.

This is so true. 

on Dec. 8 2011 at 6:11 pm
NaiNelson PLATINUM, Bellevue, Washington
36 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
Change in life is never easy, but you have to learn to deal with it because life doesn't slow down for stragglers.

This was undescribable :)

RedStory said...
on Nov. 28 2011 at 10:16 pm
I wanted to disagree with you, about comparing love to a shirt; reducing love, something so powerful and profound, to a materialistic object. But in this day and age, that is what we tend to use the word 'love' for sadly - to describe our feelings towards an object, and im just as guilty. Your piece was inspiring. Don't ever throw your shirt away.

on Nov. 23 2011 at 12:11 pm
yaythisisavailable GOLD, Simpsonville, South Carolina
13 articles 0 photos 31 comments
I love this, it was so powerful I had to read it twice!

on Nov. 21 2011 at 6:12 pm
camohunter19 GOLD, Sedro-Woolley, Washington
14 articles 13 photos 128 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it." "Violence is never the answer! It is a question, and the answer is yes."

Sweet! My shirt is new but I hope it will become as ragged as yours.

on Nov. 20 2011 at 8:43 pm
Soccergirl3 BRONZE, Rolla, Missouri
4 articles 0 photos 7 comments
This is an amazing piece. I love the metaphor of the shirt.

on Nov. 16 2011 at 7:35 pm
teresa221 BRONZE, Maywood, New Jersey
2 articles 0 photos 5 comments
This is beautifully written, and I love the connection to life it makes. It's so honest and pure, such true literary genius.

Risible SILVER said...
on Nov. 15 2011 at 9:35 pm
Risible SILVER, Norwalk, Connecticut
7 articles 0 photos 59 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can." -Richard Bach

Beautiful, thanks for sharing. Check my poem forever, it's trying to convey the same sweetness of real love. 

on Oct. 31 2011 at 3:48 pm
Amazing-Just-The-Way-We-Are BRONZE,
1 article 0 photos 3 comments
This. Is. Amazing.

on Oct. 28 2011 at 8:37 am
Lady-Milano BRONZE, Richardsbay, Other
1 article 0 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
"When ever someone says life is so hard I'm tempted to ask,compared to what?"

amazing piece

 


on Oct. 25 2011 at 6:16 pm
TeamTamani SILVER, Adams, Tennessee
9 articles 0 photos 16 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I don't need a cloak to become invisible."-Albus Dumbledore
"Fear of a name increases fear of a thing itself."-Albus Dumbledore
"By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many."-Albus Dumbledore

Wonderful peice. Its so true, that its not even funny, great peice and keep it up, you deserve to have it in the magazine.

Random said...
on Oct. 14 2011 at 10:18 pm
Amazing. I agree with so much of what you wrote, and this article was written brilliantly. No wonder this piece of writing was published for the magazine XD

Jess713 BRONZE said...
on Oct. 9 2011 at 10:34 pm
Jess713 BRONZE, Rossford, Ohio
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
" There comes to be a point in your life when you realize, who matters, who never did, and who won't anymore. So don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future."

I really enjoyed this piece. And it is all so true! "love" is really a misused word for us, and we just use it to describe the most random things like movies, music, books, etc... But in all honesty, "love" is a word that we should use sparingly, and in cases where we really MEAN IT. By the way, I loved the use of a shirt as your reference.

on Sep. 30 2011 at 11:48 am
wonderful peice of  its writing! i loved it! m wid u! :) sm thoughts! :)