Messy Bun Syndrome

        

       Gather round kids it's story time! A couple years ago I took a summer math class so that I could get ahead for the school year. Anyone who knows me knows that I get dressed up no matter where I go, so while everyone else in that class pretty much only wore sweats, I showed up every day in outfits I had carefully planned out that morning. One day I totally overslept and had no time to get ready, so I had to rush out of the house. Let's get this straight, as I walked out the front door, I knew I looked like a mess, no not the effortlessly cool kind of mess, like a straight up mess. I was wearing the same flannel pajama top I wore to sleep and a pair of dirty jeans I found on the floor. And oh the hair! Calling it a bun is a serious overstatement, it was more like an I'm-gonna-try-and-contain-this-gross-blob-with-a-hair-tie kind of bun.

       When I got to class I took my seat and waited for the teacher to begin. Halfway through the lesson the girl sitting next to me turned and whispered, "I like your hair," without a hint of sarcasm. I was genuinely shocked because, unless my hair had magically transformed, I knew it looked terrible. Later I realized that she probably thought I looked like that on purpose. This was my first experience with messy bun syndrome. Messy bun syndrome actually has nothing to do with messy buns, it's just a name we made up for when someone likes something because the person who is wearing it, not because of what they are wearing. After that day I started to notice MBS everywhere, like that scene in mean girls when Cadie and Janice cut two holes in Regina's shirt as a prank but it ends up becoming a trend at their school.

       Who knows maybe that girl really did just like my hideous bun, but that experience made me realize how often we like the name or the idea of what we're seeing more than what we are actually  experiencing. MBS doesn't only happen in fashion, I've noticed it with art, music, and just about everything else. When it comes down to it,our interests should be about what is being produced rather than who is producing it.