At the Panorama Music Festival in late July, Frank Ocean wore a T-shirt that sent me and fans alike, scavenging for where they could find their own copies. The T-shirt, which reads, “WHY BE RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC, OR TRANSPHOBIC WHEN YOU CAN JUST BE QUIET?”, has led to an increasing amount of shipments at the small business the T-shirt came from, the Green Box Shop. However, the influx of orders for the shirt has caused major delays on mine and many other customers’ shipments.

Frank Ocean. For me, many words come to mind whenever I think of this artist: talent, first love, imagery, heartbreak and a voice. A voice that is able to capture all of my emotions at once, strip it down to its core, and throw it back hard in my face in the form of a serenading song that sends waves to my heart. To put it simply, Frank Ocean is an artist that evokes feeling. So, finally becoming a major fan of his work, it came as no surprise whenever I decided to purchase my first Frank Ocean merchandise.

I decided to buy a shirt. After all, how expensive could a shirt be? I was going to buy one of those shirts with his face on it when I came across a picture of him in my news feed with the caption “This Is Where You Can Get Frank Ocean’s Panorama Music Festival Shirt” and I felt a light bulb click.  Wasting no time, I clicked the link and the first time I laid eyes on it, I knew I had found my shirt.

I placed my order July 31, (three days after fans spotted Ocean wearing his copy of the shirt), at the Green Box Shop, a small business founded in 2016 by 18-year-old Kayla Robinson, and started the 1-2 week countdown the website promised it would take to ship.

However, it was Aug. 16, and I was still waiting. By then, it was two weeks since I placed my order, and still no shipment. Deciding to utilize more of my patience, I waited another week because I figured since Frank Ocean was a popular artist, more people than just myself had seen and wanted their own copy of the shirt, so Green Box Shop was simply a little delayed.

I wrote an email two days later inquiring about my purchase because I was growing uneasy and could no longer wait. I received no response, even after I checked back with them everyday for a week. Now, thoroughly convinced I had been scammed, I checked back on their website almost a week later, and found that I was not the only one whose shipment was delayed.

As it turns out, the company sent an email to all of their customers, apologizing for the extended wait for the shipments to arrive. The email went on to explain that they were “a team of 20 doing (their) best” and they received a “huge spike in orders” once Frank Ocean was seen wearing one of their shirts. The email even approximated 10,000 orders from July 29–Aug. 20. However, also included in the email, was a coupon we could use if we decided to make a future purchase, so I was not entirely upset at the delay. According to the email, the shipment arrival has been pushed back 3-4 weeks, so I probably will not receive my shirt until mid-September.

Despite the extended time it will take to get my shirt, I know that a smile will form on my lips once my package arrives because after all, I am a Frank Ocean fan; waiting is something we have mastered.