The Yellow Dress

yellow dress
During grade school days, I remember that we were called one by one to read a story in front of the class. I was only in Grade I and reading stories was a practice on reading books and pronunciation. My teacher, Mrs. Cabigas, told me to read the story entitled, “Yellow Dress” and gave me a schedule when.

In the story, a young and poor girl who went to school without scrubbing or cleaning her face. Her clothes were dirty. The teacher saw her tattered clothes and unwashed face. Her teacher decided to give her a surprise because of her interests in going to school. The next day, the teacher gave her a yellow dress and told her to take a bath and scrub her face. And that is what the girl has done. To make the story short, the girl scrubbed herself and wear the yellow dress. All her neighbors were surprised and admire her new look. Her face shone with cleanliness and beautiful. When her neighbors saw it, they were inspired to clean up themselves and their surroundings. The girl wearing a yellow dress has become the community’s inspiration to clean their place. That’s wonderful, isn’t it?

My real life story is this because this happened at the same time. It happened before the scheduled story telling in front of the class: It’s a twist, actually. :)

My mother saw that I act like a “tomboy”. I am influenced by my four cousin's who are boys in Manila. We lived in the same house. My mother observed and tried to change me.

In school, we have an event that requires us to wear a dress. Do you know what my mother wants me to wear? A Yellow Dress! I hate wearing yellow dress because I am dark brown. It’s the result from swimming a lot in the river. The yellow dress has no sleeves but 2-spaghetti like straps. I am really against it and started to stomp my feet. Still my mother dressed me up. After dressing me up, I look at the mirror in the room and cried. I really am crying.. lolz… Mother came rushing and asked what happened. I cry and told her, “Ang pangit ko! Hindi bagay!” (I am ugly! The look doesn’t fit me!), while looking at the mirror and crying out loud. There stood a girl, dark and wearing a yellow dress with spaghetti straps. Well, Mama did not budge because she wants me to act and to walk like a lady.

Mother won! She did not change my dress for the whole day. Until now, I don’t hate the yellow dress, but I am not fond of wearing a dress. I hate sleeveless even short-sleeved and those spaghetti straps. If I have to wear a blouse with no strap, that’s okay as long as there is a coat.