How I tragically lost my beanie

Me and a different beanie

Upon the advent of this winter season, I took to wearing a beanie to ensure that my ears wouldn’t suffer from the severely cold temperatures of 45 degrees Fahrenheit that the Northern Californian climate forces on my freezing ears and scalp.

While my beanie was initially just another layer of clothing, I soon realized the fashionability that my desert-dwelling ancestors never fully realized. A simple, black cap pulled over my head and ears, with an emblazoned Adidas logo soon became the hallmark of my new look. The new fashion accessory followed me everywhere I went, from school to soccer practice. It practically covered up my self-consciously botched haircut that had taken too much hair off of the sides and left me looking like an aerodynamic toothbrush.

I still remember the fateful afternoon lunch car ride to Safeway on Jan. 20, 2022, at 12:28 p.m. on a midday afternoon. The sky was partly cloudy as I entered a white Nissan Leaf driven by [name redacted]. I sat in left backseat of the black, faux leather interior of the vehicle as it pulled out of the parking lot through the side entrance of Argonaut shopping center, past several vehicles while “Ey Joonam” by Sami Beigi was playing at full volume in the speaker system of the vehicle.

At 12:29 pm, the car pulled out of the parking lot, as I sensed I was going to be late for my sixth period. As the vehicle I was situated in executed a left turn from Blauer Drive onto Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, I stuck my head and one-thirds of my torso out of the passenger seat window, looking at the vehicle behind us, which I thought looked familiar. 

As I began to wave to the vehicle behind us, the vehicle, accelerating rapidly to a cruising velocity of [speed redacted] miles per hour, the wind, heading the opposite direction in which my vehicle was heading, picked up, and part of that gust of wind picked the beanie that sat delicately on my head.

Disaster struck, and as the wind, coupled with the inexplicably rapid acceleration of the vehicle, pulled my beanie off my head over a distance of 15 meters. 

The entire moment played out in slow motion, as I watched the black fabric of my beloved, Adidas, one size, Originals trefoil logo beanie, land pathetically on the ground onto the path of an oncoming gray sedan of an unknown make and model, upon which the tires mercilessly ran over the black cloth I had come to endear.

The immediate shock of losing the beanie washed over me like ice on bare skin. I screamed in shock, while my friends riding with me laughed at my misfortune. Unbeknownst to me, another car pulled up in the adjacent lane with the sole purpose of laughing at the tragedy that had taken place. 

The short drive back was filled with regret and grief for me, and seemed to last an eternity. To add insult to injury, my disaster of a haircut was now exposed for all to see, forcing me to hide my haircut with my hood and ruining the aesthetic I had cultivated. 

The memories I had lived with that beanie live within my mind vividly. I had worn that beanie enough to consider it more sacred than my own hair, as I’d worn it on school days and nights out.

While many other beanies may replace it, I’ll never forget this one. I’ll never forget the Adidas, one size, Originals trefoil logo beanie that retailed for $22 online that once sat snuggly on my round head, and I can only hope that we reunite again in another life.