Surrounded by his collection of high school t-shirts, senior Nate Rudnick-Aldridge prepares to attend Cornell University in the fall. photo by Karina Soares

by Hayden Pendergrass

Every morning senior Nate Rudnick-Aldridge has to make a serious decision. Floydada, Bastrop, Andress, Key West: all choices that will determine the world’s perception of him. Rudnick-Aldridge’s humorous high school t-shirt collection has been a major part of his high school experience.

“It all started a couple years ago because all of my family lives in Groton, SD,” Rudnick-Aldridge said. “Since they are the Groton Tigers, I got a couple shirts there and it expanded into Florida and all the other states [in my collection].”

Through his three years of shirt collecting, Rudnick-Aldridge has relied on gas stations, Walmarts, and personal contribution to acquire his assortment of shirts.

“When [my family and I] are out of town, we will visit Walmarts and look at the high school shirts,” Rudnick-Aldridge said. “For example, the Woonsocket Redman shirt I found at a gas station. I also get them from people that know that I collect them.”

In total, his collection contains six states, 36 high schools, and around 40 t-shirts overall, including the Bastrop Bears, the Key West Conchs and the Floydada Whirlwinds. The shirts are expressive of Rudnick-Aldridge’s unique personality.

“I’m a dork and I try to be a loveable dork, and although I may not be as crazy as some of my shirts are, I think they represent me,” Rudnick-Aldridge said.

From Rudnick-Aldridge’s perspective, the same uniqueness found in his personality is one of the reasons he is attending Cornell University in the fall, as well as a GPA around 97 and placement in the top 10%.

“It was between [the University of] Texas and Cornell, and although I’ve been to Austin and I like the city, I’ve never been to the Northeast,” Rudnick-Aldridge. “I visited the college a few weeks ago and I thought it was really interesting place.”

Despite the importance of his shirts and their relation to his personality, Rudnick-Aldridge does not plan to continue his tradition in college even though there are still a few shirts on his wish list.

“I probably won’t bring too many shirts [in college] considering I’m past that age of wearing high school shirts and will probably just bring the funny ones,” Rudnick-Aldridge said. “Either way, my goal is to get a shirt from the New Braunfels Unicorns.”