A Sea of Blue

Apparently I’m into the color blue. And by into, I mean the vast majority of clothing and belongings I’m bringing to Micronesia are blue. Not just light blue, and not just dark blue. Every shade of blue you can imagine I have packed away in my luggage. And here I was thinking my power color was red, but more on that later.

I think my collection of blue developed out of practicality. When I first began shopping for Micronesia, I checked out Target which carried 100% cotton shirts for next to nothing. I’m talking $5-$7. It’s a pity not more people wear cotton, really. Anyway, the majority of the shirts they were selling were bright colors…pink, orange, yellow, and red. But every now and then they’d add another color to the sale rack, and if I was lucky and there on the right day, I could find a shirt that actually complimented my skin tone and that didn’t make me look like a highlighter. I’d pick up a light blue shirt here…and a dark blue shirt there…and then a teal shirt…and then maybe a turquoise shirt…and then later a navy shirt…then a sky blue shirt…and soon enough I owned a rainbow of blue shirts. I then had to go about matching those shirts to skirts. Black was a no-go (too hot) and white simply would not do (it would quickly turn to brown). So, what better to match with blue…but more blue! A few blue skirts and dresses later, my rainbow of blue turned into an ocean.

And to make matters worse, my family and friends caught onto my blue shopping trend and started contributing to my collection. Just yesterday, my dad came home with a blue suitcase lock. Oh Dad…

My ocean of blue now includes blue sandals, towels, bed sheets, LifeStraw, underwear, luggage tags, bathing suits, swim trunks, swim shirts, hat, water bottle, tank tops, shirts, skirts, and much, much more.

This new blue obsession strikes me as odd because until recently I have surrounded myself with the color red. During my four years at UC Merced I’d decorate my dorm (sorry, HRL…most of the people reading this don’t understand the difference between “dorm” and “residence hall”) with reds, oranges, and yellows because the colors gave me strength and courage (cliché, I know). Sure, the colors probably contributed to my cockiness in college, but hey, whatever works!

So as I stare at my pile of clothing and belongings on the floor, hoping it'll pack itself, I can’t help but to find it interesting that I have transitioned to a much more calm, soothing color. I would have thought I would buy more of my red power color to pump me up for this adventure, but as my mom mentioned yesterday as we were buying blue bed sheets, this new wave of blue  “must mean something.”

And though I complain that I’ll disappear into the surrounding ocean, the blues blend together and soothe me during this stressful time.

Back to packing!

Rachel  

Only a handful of my blue and green belongings.