I got a bunch of new clothes over my break. Over the past year or so, I’ve been trying to adult-ify my wardrobe (do adults make up words?!). Simple colors, no text, adult clothes.

New clothes are pretty awesome. I wore all new clothes today, and I looked pretty spiffy.

Sometimes, though, I feel like a stranger when I wear new clothes. Sometimes,it feels like I’m wearing a costume. And with that comes a bunch of weird implications.

New clothes make me feel like I am living a different life.

New clothes make me embarrassed.

New clothes make me feel naked.

In short, new clothes make me feel like I’m not myself.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about the “Thank You” Game. I got some negative criticism on that one. People said that it was insincere. I think there might be some truth in that. I didn’t do a very good job explaining.

What I was trying to say was that sometimes being grateful for something doesn’t feel right. It feels awkward and strange and the words “thank you” don’t seem to fit in our mouth. And we think that means something important so we don’t verbalize our gratitude.

The point is that you and I aren’t perfect. We aren’t going to be able to identify every opportunity to be grateful so just because showing gratitude feels foreign to us doesn’t mean we should not show gratitude.

Just because new clothes feel awkward at first doesn’t mean we should never wear new clothes.