Everybody Has a Jacket

Everybody has a jacket, and each person's jacket is different. Every jacket is tailored to fit the individual who will wear it. It is exactly their shape, exactly their size, and exactly their color. This would be a perfect system if it weren't for change. Change adds many flaws to the method, making it imperfect. Yes, the jacket suits each person perfectly, but people change. People grow and evolve, and they may not always fit into the same jacket. The decision remains up to each person whether or not they will get a different jacket to suit their changing shape. Whether they'll get a new jacket to better flatter them as they grow. Perhaps some people prefer the familiarity of the jacket they have always worn. Those people may keep the same jacket for a lifetime, no matter how tight and torn it may be. While others may see growth as an opportunity to fit into a new jacket, one that will grow with them. Some people wear many different jackets throughout the various phases of their lives, and others wear the same jacket through them all. Some people even attempt to shrink and contort in an effort to squeeze into someone else's jacket.

Your first jacket, your original jacket, is not one you purchase or choose yourself, but one that is given to you. You have no say in this jacket, but it is your choice whether it continues to fit. This jacket is determined by the criteria you are born into. The shape, size, and color are decided by statistics and variables. It's a mathematical process used to decide something as abstract and unpredictable as a human life. The person who gives you your first jacket decides whether it will fit by comparison. Would it fit someone else with the same income as you? Would it fit others who speak your language? Would the jacket suit others with your skin tone? Your eye color? Does the jacket look good on other people with hair similar to yours? This jacket fits well at first, before you are faced with options and choices. As you decide whether you will break these statistics, and whether you will meet the expectations of society, you may outgrow your jacket. Your jacket might even become too big.

No jacket is permanent. Despite whether your circumstances make you feel as though it is. The life you are born into may make your jacket seem irremovable, but every jacket can be shed. You have infinite opportunities to change your jacket, and countless jackets to choose from. You may live up to the standards society has assumed of you based on your statistics, always fitting into the same jacket comfortably. Or you may combat your expectations and become a completely unanticipated person, who wears a jacket completely opposite from the one you were originally given and expected to suit. You may change multiple times in multiple facets and be able to suit several different jackets in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. One jacket may suit you perfectly for awhile, and then you may outgrow it or it may stop flattering you due to changes in your life and circumstances.

When it comes to jackets, many things are true. Yes, each jacket is different. Yes, everybody has a jacket. Yes, jackets can be changed. Contrary to this, many things about jackets are also untrue. No, your jacket is not irremovable. No, your jacket is not permanent. No, you cannot fit into anyone else's jacket, no matter how hard you may try. Changing jackets may be hard, and the difficulty varies from person to person. When it comes to jackets, though, there is one indisputable, undeniable truth: The jacket that you wear, is up to you.