Significance of Jacket

In "The Man I Could Be," the narrator's father's jacket symbolizes the aspirational version of self. When the narrator is a teenager, he decides to put the jacket away until he feels worthy enough to wear it. However, he spends his entire life taunted by the specter of the man he wants to be but has failed to become. Instead of living in the present, he is constantly distracted by the elusive and unattainable future.