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T-shirt tension

Another school’s apparel is not treasonous garb

<p>Kristin's column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at k.murtha@cavalierdaily.com.</p>

Kristin's column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at k.murtha@cavalierdaily.com.

While I did not enjoy much about the college road trips which peppered the last two years of my high school experience, at least I was sure of one thing: every time I folded myself into the back seat of my parent’s car and took off toward another campus tour, I would be return with a new item of college paraphernalia.

Everyone knows that feeling. Whether or not you fall in love with the campus you’re plodding around — almost always in the rain, in my experience — your interest is piqued when the guide points out the bookstore.

You had just begun to lose interest — understandably, as there are only so many benches upon which famous minds could have parked it for an afternoon. Yet suddenly, interest is renewed. From that point, you pay close attention to every turn the tour group makes, because you know you’ll be headed back to the bookstore.

By the end of his or her high school career, every senior’s collection of college T-shirts, sweatshirts and those unflattering but overwhelmingly comfortable tapered sweatpants is so vast it’s a surprise we wear anything else.

But once you’ve made it through the college application process and picked the school you are going to attend for the rest of your academic career, the collection you’ve been curating is essentially dead on arrival. On Grounds, wearing a T-shirt from a different college invites quizzical looks and the occasional unsolicited question.

“Why are you wearing that shirt? You go to U.Va. — aren’t you proud of your school?”

Now, let’s make one thing is clear. The Virginia bookstore has made a killing off of me, and I have been doing my part at Mincer’s to keep the Corner’s economy alive and thriving. In fact, I can be convinced to purchase almost anything which bears the name of our state or is navy and orange in color. Believe me when I tell you that the bulk of my college clothing is in fact from dear old U.Va.

But every once in a while, a logo from a different school floats to the top of my dresser, or the need for a last minute extra layer leads me to grab the first fleece I lay hands on.

Sporting the occasional Duke v-neck or Colgate quarter zip — which is quite possibly the warmest thing I own — does nothing to diminish my love for this school. The wardrobe of knits I have amassed through the years from various college visits is a reminder that I survived those long weekends during which I snaked a path along the East Coast, hitting as many schools as possible before I had to go back and sit through AP Calculus the next Monday. And ultimately, my collection reminds me I made the right choice of school.

At the end of the day, I may be wearing a Boston College sweatshirt, but I’m wearing that sweatshirt as a student at the University of Virginia. And isn’t that all that matters?

Plus, when I see a student wearing a shirt from a different school, I don’t find myself suspecting that he or she doesn’t love our school enough. Instead, I choose to be impressed by the great options he or she had to choose from — or curious as to the nature of his or her connection to that university.

That is, unless it’s a Tech shirt. Because, really — you know should better than that.

Kristin’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at k.murtha@cavalierdaily.com.

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