I’m a firm believer in wearing clothes you can trash. Everyone needs at least one set of super comfy clothes for lounging in all day while reading a book, and one set of clothes for trashing.
We call them Grubbies.
During the first week of summer break the first project of the year is the Grubbie Shirt. Usually white, the shirt gets painted or dyed to mark the start of summer, and then it gets trashes.
Every stain, rip, and paint splotch is a memory. Summer camp friends sign the shirt. Dogs drool on the shirt. The bison at the zoo try to eat the shirt. And it doesn’t matter because THAT IS WHAT THE GRUBBIE SHIRT IS FOR!
There’s a glorious freedom in knowing there is absolutely no way to ruin a grubby shirt. Everything done to the shirt makes it better. Because the point of a grubbie shirt isn’t to be pristine, it’s to be used. It’s a shirt that’s meant to be lived in.
You know what else is meant to be lived in? LIFE
We try to hide the truth with instagram filters and overly positive FaceBook posts, but the truth is, life is messy. We get scars. We get ripped. We get torn. We make mistakes and some of them will stick with us forever. But all this bumps and hiccups don’t take anything away from us; they add something. For better or worse, everyone is an accumulation of life experiences. The good and the bad.
The more you do, the more new things you try, the more life you experience… the more you grow as a person.
So read a book. Take a hike. Paint. Sing. Dream. Create.
Real life is messy, so go ahead and get dirty.