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.


on Sep. 30 2011 at 11:02 am
Ms.Brightside BRONZE, Deshler, Ohio
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
I think a shirt was a bad refernce, But I understand the pieces, heck, I see people everyday say Love after a day or 2 then hate the next moment

-Duckie- GOLD said...
on Sep. 17 2011 at 10:19 am
-Duckie- GOLD, West Fargo, North Dakota
18 articles 0 photos 127 comments

Favorite Quote:
Your heart is a weapon the size of your fist. Keep fighting. Keep loving.
-Anonymous

Please understand that I really mean it when I say I LOVED this piece. Keep wearing your favorite shirt.

on Sep. 12 2011 at 3:55 pm
loveshortstuff11, Rush, Colorado
0 articles 0 photos 30 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."

Wow! That was a great piece, and a great use of metaphor! Keep it up! :)

Lizette SILVER said...
on Sep. 11 2011 at 7:14 pm
Lizette SILVER, Delphos, Ohio
5 articles 0 photos 47 comments

Favorite Quote:
Everyone is entitled to be stupid. But some people abuse the privlidge!

i loved the comparison! great job!

on Sep. 11 2011 at 5:27 pm
CupcakeSaffy PLATINUM, Cochrane, Other
20 articles 0 photos 28 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away."

You are very talented; this is a wonderful, thoughtful piece. Well done!

on Sep. 10 2011 at 3:06 pm
xxtennis13xx SILVER, Clarkston, Michigan
9 articles 0 photos 25 comments
I feel guilty for rating "I love it", but this is one of the most honest, true, well-written ideas I have read on teenink. I have always thought that love is thrown around and has lost its true vlaue, but could never put it into such beautiful words like you have here. This is beautiful, I will definitely be showing this to my friends! Wonderful!

panda97 said...
on Sep. 7 2011 at 10:20 am
okay this article was very well written like said before it really made me think about what love really is or what people should really feel about what the word means we need to think about how were using it before we say it

on Aug. 22 2011 at 11:58 am
Bookworm1998 GOLD, Brampton, Other
17 articles 2 photos 118 comments

Favorite Quote:
Preserve your memories, keep them well; what you forget, you can never retell.

this is written very well! a very good and very true article that makes us really think... :)

on Aug. 20 2011 at 11:36 pm
wordweaver96 PLATINUM, Winchester, Kentucky
37 articles 2 photos 254 comments

Favorite Quote:
" It is not our abilities but our choices that show who we truly are. "
Albus Dumbledore


See, we really DON'T have anything to fear but fear itself!

I really relate to this. Sometimes trying can be so hard, because there always seems to be some obstacle that is too large to surpass. I agreee with every word you say, and the t-shirt metaphor, well, fits to a t. I hope our generation changes the world, because hope will be distant if we don't.

on Aug. 18 2011 at 2:34 pm
savetheplanet PLATINUM, Anaheim, California
45 articles 9 photos 564 comments

Favorite Quote:
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Your article is simple and truthful and honest, just as love should be.  It is overused and I feel bad when people say it and don't mean it.  Thank you for writing this.

on Aug. 11 2011 at 1:43 pm
RandomInspiration GOLD, Schulenburg, Texas
10 articles 0 photos 21 comments

Favorite Quote:
Laugh as much as you breathe, and love as long as you live <3

Not to be hurtful, but I think you stretched the metaphor too far in a couple places. Very well-written though :)

on Jul. 20 2011 at 5:09 pm
KristinHopkins8 SILVER, Aspen, Colorado
7 articles 0 photos 83 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die"

thats excatly how i feel!

on Jul. 15 2011 at 11:36 pm
KandiceMichelle PLATINUM, Stansonburg, North Carolina
24 articles 0 photos 29 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Yet God has made everything BEAUTIFUL for its own time. He has planted ETERNITY in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

This article is truely what everyone needs to hear!! I wish more people would see the world that way. I believe this article is pure genius.

k.s.h. GOLD said...
on Jul. 12 2011 at 9:43 am
k.s.h. GOLD, Depauw, Indiana
11 articles 0 photos 40 comments

Favorite Quote:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I--I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.


Robert Frost

This article is so good! I just adore it so much that I don't know what to say about it.

Erin S. said...
on Jul. 7 2011 at 10:34 am
Wow!!! The metophor in this story was wonderful!

on Jun. 23 2011 at 5:55 pm
Leena7395 SILVER, Spring Grove, Illinois
8 articles 0 photos 80 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be who you are because those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.

Amazing. This is an incridible article!

Ilovemybubay said...
on Jun. 22 2011 at 6:42 pm
Ilovemybubay, Los Lunas, New Mexico
0 articles 0 photos 6 comments
WOW! That was truley  amazing. the second i started reading i didnt want to stop! you neede to keep writitng! that was amazing!

on Jun. 22 2011 at 10:32 am
introducingshelby GOLD, San Diego, California
15 articles 1 photo 139 comments

Favorite Quote:
"People change so you can learn to let go, things go wrong so you can appreciate them when they go right, and things fall apart so better things can fall together."
-Marilyn Monroe

The opening paragrpah.. I knew I could seriously relate to this article..

on May. 24 2011 at 11:48 pm
"I dont want my love to fade; though my shirt is tattered and worn, I wear it daily." I really like this sentence. I mean Love this sentence. Well and the rest of it. 

on May. 24 2011 at 6:31 pm
MissArcher BRONZE, N. Bonneville, Washington
2 articles 2 photos 2 comments

Oh my... You are a very talented writer! Love truly is our Favorite Shirt. Great job!