take a walk on the wild side

bear with me on this one....

seeing lots of "back to school" photos from friends has had me mulling over the whole "school uniform question" (which sets off a random thought on the West Lothian Question which I will ignore due to it being too random).
My children don't wear school uniform. Shisha went to school like this. Again. Today without the studded belt and chains. But with quite a lot of dirt as she's been wearing this outfit for two weeks.
Other kids are certainly cleaner and have more "appropriate" clothing that their parents probably buy for them rather than their adult-sized sister (the dress worn here is actually Big Bling's top).
OK....that's one thing.
I wore school uniform for a long time. I nearly always wore it incorrectly. I got told off a lot. I also wore Sea Cadet uniform for many years. I know how to do uniforms - I know how to look smart int hem and I know how to look subversive in them.
OK....that's another thing.
As you can see from this picture, one does not need to be clean, in uniform or even in school to do maths. The maths being done here is voluntary and done because it's fun.
That's yet another thing.
Today I went clothes shopping and, yet again, had to fight the urge to buy a shirt and a V-neck as "smart" clothes....I mean why? I left school YEARS ago and I STILL think that a shirt and a V-neck is smart? And I still want to buy things in "proper" colours rather than the colours I like. I hate it! I'm STILL fighting some weird war against school uniform!! I still feel subversive about wanting red boots!!!
Luckily, I got the idea that learning can happen anywhere a while back - after all, most of my masters degree was done in pyjamas, in bed, at the end of long days....
And today I bought clothes in colours I like, in styles I feel comfortable in...and I bought myself red boots and knee high boots and slouchy cowboy-style boots and now I need six feet to wear them all at once.
Sometimes it can take a long time to grow up enough to be yourself...today's song will be obvious....but maybe you don't know this version. And if you don't, I am very happy to introduce it to you because I think it's bloody brilliant!