When Life Doesn't Go To Plan
+ you still make the best of it - wear other people's clothing and try not to feel bad.
Happy New Year! I’m writing this from NozawaOnsen, Japan, where it snowed every day. My New Year’s was spent with two dear friends mountainside snowboarding, sitting in onsens, and waiting for my lost luggage to arrive! We will come back to the luggage—don’t worry—
At the age of five my father strapped me into a snowboard and sent me down the mountain. Since then snowboarding has been a passion of mine and being about to do that in Japan has been a long-time dream. I’m thankful for where my life has taken me that this winter, that dream became a reality.
Then the time came. My bags were packed, all the snowboarding equipment in tow—minus my boards and boots. At the airport waiting to board the plane looking for a morning juice my phone starts buzzing with delay notifications — twenty minutes later another delay — this time it is delayed for two hours which means I’m missing my transfer to Tokyo. I grabbed my backpack and went to the help desk for a new flight.
There was one other flight that would get me to Tokyo in time for me to make my booked bullet train to Nozawa. Sometimes travel can go array — certainly in international travel — once one thing goes bad, it can start a domino effect. It is always best to try to stick to your plans as best as possible unless you are willing to take it as it comes. In this case, I was on a trip with two others. So taking it as it comes was not in the cards necesserily.
The woman at the desk finished booking my flight and said ok, you will have to leave this terminal and then re-check in with our partner airline in the terminal next door. Do you have a bag? Yes. She showed a moment of stutter but then said, “Don’t worry we will pull your bag from the plane and transfer it over for you.” Ok, are you sure? She said, “Yes, just go to check in to your next flight. We will take care of your bag.”
I trusted. I left and went to my new flight.
Twenty hours later, when I arrived in Tokyo, I was greeted by a representative from the airline who said, “We lost your bag.” The trip wasn’t just to go snowboarding and come home; it included Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and Kanzawa, which totals just over two weeks here—traveling about on train, bus, and taxi. It is hard to hold down where lost luggage should go once it is found if every few days your going to be in different locations but I’d deal with that after or if they found the luggage.
It’s hard not to get upset, but one of my inspirational styles these past few years have been japanese street style. Oh no — what a bad place to lose my clothes and have to buy supplemental ones. The only issue were:
1. The airline was not willing to reimburse any of my purchases.
2. My sustainbility morals not willing to bend to purchase unnecessary clothing when hopefully mine would be on the way.
Where that left me was wearing the clothing on my back, my friend's clothing, and the essentials purchased with the 50USD the airline gave me out of the inconvience.
Pictured is what made it with me to Japan
Not pictured a canvas skirt that I wore on flight, sneakers, my laptop, my film camera
The writer’s essentials
Sitting in the few days without my luggage fostered inward and outward identity themes as it realtes to style and clothing that I will share with you below.
Outward
Between the two friends traveling with me, we were able to put together some outfits together. The first notice was that no matter what clothing was given to me, my style outwardly remained. It felt funny to witness my friends seeing and weird for me to experience. Wouldn’t how I showed up in the world change because of wearing other people’s clothing?
It had me thinking about the correlation between idenity with clothing and how we are precieved then just the type of clothing we wear but how we wear it. We do retain ourselves, somehow still within it. Maybe from a strong sense of self that wearing another person’s clothes would sway how you show up. So stronger sense of self outweighs the identiy that would happen to you by wearing another person’s clothing.
See below the same outfit me and my friend wore on different days. My friend looks like a little snow baby angel where I still have my street cool girl look. In the same clothing we both retained our own identities.
Really what I’m talking about is personal style and what creates style. It is not just the clothing. Yet we knew that, it’s one thing to “know” it but another to experience it first hand, which I had the oppurtunity to this week. Style is rather all in the word — taking our clothing and adopting it to our unique styling. Do you roll the sleeves, zip half way up, wear with a necklace, put a bag on your back, bright sneakers or maybe something completely different that no one even thinks of but you. That is what style is. Something that can’t be taken even when you don’t have your own clothing to wear.
Inward
Each day and each outfit felt like something of me—a version of myself that was in deep need of help and being provided for but not me. It is funny how the situation we are in makes you feel that way, and for me, the clothing we wear made me feel my situation more.
A black Uniqlo puffer that was a staple of warmth for me during the days without my clothing and every time I lifted my arms, four inches of my wrist were exposed. Once looking down at this exposure of my wrists, I felt like a child given the second-hand jacket wrong sized and not actually fully covering or working the way it was intended to, but it still draped over me in a way to keep me warm in a time of need. It was a state of desperation, and my clothing resembled that loud to me internally.
It being Janurary 1st when I release this article, in reflection on my life. This incident had me question what we hold onto and what we should let go of. Not having my clothing made me think the possession my material items had over me rather then me simply owning them. Maybe next year my habits will have a big overhaul, how will I interact with the sustainbility space differently with less attatchment and more humanity.
We are given the autonomy everyday to choice how to dress. Yet what about those who aren’t. How are those affected when clothing isn’t thier choice? This is the case for a lot of people in the world. Maybe people you know who as close as neighbors. How would they feel if they were given autonomy to choice where access is the inhibator? Freedom — dignity maybe self-esteem. I know these are some of the things I felt again when my clothing choice came back to me. My sense of self.
Beautiful writing, wonderful stories, sweet reflections, love seeing your face.
Lovely!