Nurture vs. Nature

I have always been the type of person that was extremely interested in nurture vs. nature. I have never much felt at home in my own environment whether that was in the depths of the foothills of North Carolina or the suburbs of Jacksonville, FL and as a result I see myself as the product of nurture over nature. When that concept is taken into consideration when I think about the way that I dress myself I have never given much thought to my location as much as I have thought about my mood; once again nurture over nature.

                However after living in Miami for going on five years now I have begun singing a very different tune. If one does not consider the South Florida environment when getting dressed in the morning it can become quite dangerous. For example, you wouldn’t want to wear a multi-layered ensemble in the middle of August because there is a good chance that within minutes you would dehydrate and faint. Trust me, I would know based off of experience.

                Psychology major Tiffany Concepcion was very much in tune with nature last week when she was spotted wearing a summery polka-dot dress in the housing quad. “The weather is finally nice so I wanted to reciprocate that,” and reciprocate she did pairing her light-hearted dress with a heavy duty black fisher’s cap to protect her from the downsides of nice weather: heat strokes.

                One thing that we all must consider when getting dressed based on the weathers conditions is that during these recent months hurricane season tends to have the days starting out gloomy with rain pouring down and ending with a cloudless sky. This can either leave you looking like an idiot with rain boots on when there’s not a cloud in sight or like International Relations major Ariana Romero who looked like a gleaming Venus figure in her whimsical full-length white lace dress. When I asked Ariana what made her get dressed in that particular outfit that day she responded with, “I thought it was the girliest, most fun spirited thing to wear for this gloomy day.” 

                My last encounter that had me pondering nurture vs. nature recently was with freshman Cameron Brite who was seen lounging on a bench in a simple jeans, sweatshirt and hat combo. "This was the first thing I saw." Many a times this is our response to why we end up getting dressed in whatever it is we do in the morning but I think it's much deeper than that. Cameron chose to pair a green sweatshirt with a hat that's green shades matched her sweatshirt perfectly. She also had her hat tilted in a way that made the accessory of the hat into a statement or representation about personality beyond her environment. I mean why else would she have been wearing a sweatshirt in 90 degree weather if it wasn't a triumph of nurture over nature? 

                The psychology behind the way we dress is a complex and troubled one that is a mixture of nurture and nature; of genuine expression and false persona; of fantasy and reality. The way that we dress is not one or the other but all of the above. We are the result of nurture, nature and so much more.