Now that you know each other’s favorite TV shows, it’s time to ask yourself: Is he ready to be in a relationship with your 75 high school t-shirts? These symbols of class trips, sports teams, and random youth group events your friend Hope invited you to are an extension of you and your identity, and if your relationship is going to succeed, he’ll have to incorporate these important relics of your past into your future together. Is he ready to live in the shadow of your stacked boxes of important shirts? Find out:
Does he understand the time and care it takes to maintain these t-shirts?
You limited yourself to 75 for a reason — you’ve been able to fold, launder and store them properly for over a decade. They’ve traveled with you from college to home to a new city to several new apartments in that new city then temporarily back to home when you were figuring stuff out and then once again to a new city. That’s a lot of time and care that went into keeping that 10th grade basketball trip to Orlando fresh in your memory and in your wardrobe. If he gets how seriously you take the maintenance of your t-shirts, then he might be ready to get upgraded.
Is he ready to commit long-term to these shirts?
Can he really stick it out, even when things get rough and a guacamole stain appears on your “Science Happens To You” shirt from Mr. Stolley’s 9th grade biology class and you keep wearing it? Can he weather his own futile arguments trying to convince you to get rid of that Warped Tour t-shirt you accidentally took from that girl while changing for JV volleyball? If he can’t commit to this long term, then he might not be ready.
Can he handle sharing t-shirt space?
More than anything, your T-shirts require a lot of space. Multiple drawers and shelves are needed to store your shirts and that may be hard for some guys to deal with. Is he okay with giving you the drawer space you need in his apartment so you can sleep comfortably in that camo shirt from a Mack’s hardware store? Is he okay with sleeping next to you in your Hanson shirt? If he can handle this, then he can handle you and your cotton hoard.
Is he one to bring up past mistakes and failures that are linked to t-shirts?
Your shirts are walking memories, and not all of them are good. You still hold onto that one Bob Marley shirt that Derrick left in your car before he broke up with you right before senior exams. Is your new guy able to be open about his past letdowns? Can he show emotion like you did when you got that “Free Winona” shirt after losing class president junior year? If he can’t be open, then maybe he’s not ready to adopt your collection as his own.
So if he can commit to understanding your need to hold onto that puke brown shirt with the light pink “SURVIVOR” written across it from senior year field day, then he is ready to be in this relationship. But remember to ease him into this slowly, don’t mention right away the 50 more shirts you have sitting in your parent’s basement.
