In my search for a pair of jeans to back-up/replace my current favorite pair, I tried on every single pair of jeans (minus the extreme skinny’s - can’t pull them off) at Express. Exasperated, I announced defeat, cursing Express for updating their line. Why bother to update perfection?
Absent-mindedly browsing through the sales rack, I stumbled upon a decent-looking pair - nice wash, boot-cut, more or less my size - and I tugged on them to test their stretch. Not bad. “What the hell,” I thought, and I went back to the dressing room for one more go.
Skeptically, I took the jeans off the hanger and pulled them on. As I buttoned them, though, I felt the golden feeling of jean shopping, the feeling where you know - you just know - that they look great even before you look in the mirror. The feeling where they fit your own quirky jean preferences perfectly, just tight enough in the right places and just loose enough in the others. They are The Jeans.
I’m probably being a little dramatic about finding a good pair of jeans (in my defense, after being in Express for almost an hour, I was a little desperate), and my ecstatic “Oh my God!” when I slipped them on was probably a little dramatic too. But few feelings rival that golden feeling. And I think there are few times in life where I am that sure that something is so right.
For the big things in life (although judging from this post I seem to think buying jeans is a pretty big thing), I wish there were a way to know that something “fits right,” to know as soon as I make the decision that whatever I’m choosing is definitely the best choice. I wish I could assess a decision like I look into a mirror, and instantly know if it suits me.
I think the feeling people talk about where they “just know” they were meant for whatever path they are pursuing is the closest feeling to the golden feeling. If that feeling of sheer confidence in your decisions can’t be determined simply by a mirror, though, how do you know when you’ve made the right choice? I imagine achieving it isn’t as easy as slipping into a pair of jeans and looking in a mirror, but like shopping for jeans, it probably takes patience, diligence, persistence, and a willingness to try different things.
Hopefully one day I’ll feel that golden feeling about something a bit bigger than jeans. But for now, I’m still at Express, wading through the racks.
