Alright, alright—enough with the political entries! I know you guys don’t come here to read that junk, so today, I thought a bit of a change was in order. I thought I’d take a second to write about a new fashion trend gripping Bucknell’s campus, one even more ridiculous than the popped-collar polo shirts trend. This fashion involves the coupling of very short miniskirts and boots. Yes, boots.

Of course, these aren’t any boots. Cheap boots aren’t good enough for the average Bucknell student. No, these boots are special $110+ boots. From what others more fashionable than I inform me, these boots are known as Uggs and are quite the status symbol. On Bucknell’s campus, they can often be seen encasing the feet of young women, who then wear an extremely short miniskirt, in order to show off their flashy new status symbols.

The lengths some Bucknell students go in the pursuit of fashion is a source of great amusement to me. I mean, first of all, this fashion itself is fairly expensive. The boots themselves run around $125 in most stores. While they are reportedly quite warm and well-made, that still seems a bit pricey for footwear. (Then again, the footwear I am currently wearing cost me about $20 at Payless.) The skirts also add a bit to the top of the bill. I’m no expert on the prices of skirts, but given the fact that we’re talking extremely nice skirts here, I’m guessing they could be around $40 or more. That’s $165, all in the name of fashion! I could do a lot with $165—if I had $165 to spend. Instead, I must be happy with the few dollars I have left after doing laundry and paying for school supplies.

I remember a time when boots were very, very not cool. When I was in elementary school, I often wore ugly brown boots to school. I remember I was much chagrined several times when I forget to bring my tennis shoes with me, and was forced to wear the boots all day long. I spent much effort trying to hide them under the cuffs of my pants. But here at Bucknell, the world is turned upside down—girls wear a miniskirt to make sure that everyone sees their “100% real sheepskin!” boots. If they happen to be wearing jeans instead of a miniskirt, they make sure to tuck the cuffs of their pants into their boots—even though their jeans are often times boot cut.

Admittedly, fashion in general is not my area of expertise. Torn Levi jeans, thrift-store t-shirts, and $20 shoes are not really fashionable these days (of course, I contend that you can never go wrong with an outfit like that—thrift-store clothing transcends time). I still seem to get along okay. I have friends. Most people like me. I can’t really say that paying $165 for the latest fashion trend is going to help me along in life, or make people like me more. But then again, I’ve never tried it, so I can’t accurately predict the results—this could be an interesting experiment if someone is willing to give me $165 to try it out. I am, however, glad for those thoughtful individuals who go to such lengths in the name of fashion—you really do bring a smile to my face and a chuckle to my lips every time I see you.