There he goes… the famous, outgoing, nonchalant senior Jaden Crutchfield. He walks cooly through the NAHS hallways—Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” in his ears— like a breeze wisps through the autumn air.
Crutchfield, truly a jack of all trades, expresses himself in various ways. From being a video game enthusiast to pursuing a career in broadcast journalism, the NAHS senior is a person of many stories.
“All my life, I wanted to be a news anchor. So when I found out about the video and production class and how they do the Eagle News, it really interested me,” said Crutchfield.
Speaking of stories, what makes Crutchfield such a unique individual is something that he is widely known for, but students know very little about: the bandana.
“Junior year—it was like at the beginning of the school year, right before [junior] pictures—I got the worst haircut of all time,” Crutchfield reflected.
Crutchfield bore the messed-up, crooked hairline that his barber had cursed him with and even revealed that his friends “were doing equations” on his hairline.
“I tried to wear bucket hats to cover it up because obviously I didn’t want to walk around with a messed-up hairline,” said Crutchfield.
After a while, Crutchfield was not satisfied with the bucket hats and found himself and others disliking the fashion. It was an apathetic cover-up, something that Crutchfield didn’t take much pride in—that is, until his girlfriend recommended that he should try wearing a bandana.
“At first, it was just because of the hairline, and it grew on me,” Crutchfield said.
Since then, Crutchfield has gotten multiple bandanas to add to his personal closet of self-expression.
“Now I have the whole rainbow of different bandanas for different outfits,” said Crutchfield. However, he claims his black bandana is his favorite.
Given the time during which he began rocking the style, Crutchfield emphasizes that the bandanas have transcended material value for him, becoming more than just a piece of loose fabric that he can tie around his head.
“Junior year was a hard year of high school,” said Crutchfield, adding, “That’s when I started wearing the bandanas, so I had hope–like sentimental value to them.”
Crutchfield hopes to keep the fashion trend going into his college years.
Coming up on his last year at NAHS, Crutchfield feels that Mr. Norristown is another way to get him out of his comfort zone. He describes the thought of performing in front of his peers and judges as a “mix of nervousness and excitement.” But this same discomfort and uncertainty that proved cumbersome in the past is what, today, makes him so remarkable among his peers. Crutchfield brought up the feeling of leaving his comfort zone during his tennis years; the story behind the bandana is one of coming of age; and from what we can deduce from the inexplicably nonchalant and unreserved NAHS senior, his performance at Mr. Norristown sounds like it will be one to remember.