Alex Goes Back to High School, Part 3: Graphic Tee's, Flip Phones, & Flip Flops

Photos by Angel Esparza

Welcome to Part Three! I just wanted to take a quick sec to thank everyone for your comments, DMs, etc…I’m so glad a lot of you liked this “series” and I hope to keep the momentum going and shoot more stuff like this for you all!

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I seriously can’t believe I have an immense amount clothing that I’ve accumulated through the years. What surprises me the most is that I can remember the day I bought a specific garment and how/why I bought it. As I was going through my stuff and I tried to assemble outfits for this series, I came across this tee, of course it was from American Eagle Outfitters.

It was summer 2005, and I remember seeing this tee on one of AE’semail ads…and I just knew I needed to go out and buy it. I bought it and kept it hanging in my closet with its tags on. I wasn’t too sure on when I would wear it, I seriously wanted to make sure I wore it for a “memorable” day/event. Summer break was almost over and it was time to go back to school and start 10^th grade. I was really scared to begin this new journey (since High School in Calexico starts in 10^th grade and ends in 12^th, duh). I was going to meet new people and encounter new situations.

 I went through my closet trying to build the PERFECT outfit to go back to school, and somehow I managed to forget that I had this tee hanging in my closet. Once I found it I KNEW it was the perfect tee to take to school. I paired this tee with some pair of ripped jeans and flip flops. Please don’t judge me. that was considered “trendy” 10+ years ago! If you don’t believe me binge on MTV’s Laguna Beach and then we can talk.  

 As I made my way into school I bumped into all my friends from Junior High, and I event reconnected with people I hadn’t seen since elementary school! I met new people and I met my best friend Juan in our Biology class. I went to McDonald’s for lunch with my friends and we were late to class after lunch, teehee. I met one or two girls that caught my eye and I also realized I REALLY wanted to get my driver’s license because it was 3:10 PM and I had to walk a mile back home and it was like 100 degrees outside, FML.

Overall it was a great day, I wore this tee that got “stained” with so many fucking awesome memories (awwww).  So if you have a tee or a jacket or something sitting in your closet that might hold some sort of sentimental value; I suggest to not get rid of it. Who know, it might just come back in style or you want to pass it down to your kids. I really hope I can save all my tees and pass them along to my kids (:

Oh, and can we take a second to admire this beauty of a flip phone? It was the "RAZR" rival from Samsung; the SPH-A900 phone. This phone was so cool: had a battery life of like 3 days and I had "internet", well some deluded version of the internet were I was only able to use to download free ringtones ;) Oh, and I would drop it 22,000 times a day and it would still work (ahemmmm smart phones).

 Oh: here’s the ad I saw back in ’05; thank you internet for making anything and everything available online:

Source: Lebook