Misty Krueger

#whatprofessorswear

September 4 marked the beginning of my eighteenth year of teaching my own university courses. I’ve had a lot of first day outfits as a college instructor because I teach two semesters a year, and sometimes I teach summer courses.

In the last few years I have noticed that more parents are posting first-day-of-school photos on social media. It’s not that people weren’t taking these photos before, and it’s not that people weren’t posting them online, but in the last couple of years the amount of first-day photos seemed to grow. I love seeing these photos. The first-day photo taken at the beginning of the day before school starts often shows youth excited, ready to go…or frowning because summer is over!

Rarely do we take an end-of-the-first-day-of-school photo. But this fall I saw a hilarious series of photos taken by a mom of her daughter. You probably saw it too because it went viral.

These photos remind us of how wonderful and taxing a day of classes can be. I wish that I could remember to take a photo of myself at the end of the day. Maybe that should be a future project.

I always remember to take a photo at the start of the day, and I did that this year. But I was more mindful of the way I looked this year because some things had changed–not just the clothes. Yes, I had on new clothes and shoes, but I had hair. (Last year I was bald.) I had violet hair.

So, here is my before and after pic, but in the reverse order. This year / Last year:

As I am typing this blog post, I’m actually wearing that comma, comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon shirt (a ref to Culture Club’s great song and gifted to me by the wonderful Dina). I wore that shirt last year because I like to wear graphic t’s with printed skirts. I have another blog post on this already.

This year I decided to wear a lovely Michael Kors LBD with ruffled sleeves. I bought this dress last year right about the time I found out I had cancer. I planned to wear it last fall, and then I never got around to it before going on medical leave. So technically it’s a new dress, even though it has been in my closet for a while!

Same goes for the shoes. My mom bought me those Esprit mules last summer, and I didn’t get a chance to wear them until this fall. Here’s a close up:

They are comfy and cute. They can be worn with all kinds of clothing, and a cream-colored shoe goes with everything, so I recommend that you purchase a pair of mules and/or cream shoes. But even better, these shoes are patent leather mules. I love patent leather shoes.

Also, I wore my lovely Betsey Johnson mermaid necklace. I wear this necklace a lot, and I have blogged about it before. If you want some fun jewelry to wear with a basic outfit, and how basic this outfit could be: a black dress and cream shoes could be really boring, I recommend Betsey Johnson. I took a simple dress, added a moveable mermaid necklace, and bam! It was no longer boring.

Finally, I have to address the stuff that covers the head. Last year it was the UMF hat gifted to me by the wonderful Shari. This year it was the hair gifted to me by 1) nature, 2) me, and 3) my new hairdresser, Lana. I have blogged about that recently, so I won’t say much more, but let me just note how much I love having colored hair! To add to that, I love having hair! #grateful 🙂

So, what did we learn from this blog post, kittens? We have learned that having hair is great, especially in a funky color. Wearing a LBD and cream shoes works well, but adding an interesting piece of jewelry to that combo is crucial. We should take before pictures and after pictures (wish I had done that this year). The first day of school is important. Every day is important, actually.

Check back in about a week for another blog post! Let me know if you would like to be a guest blogger, too.