Shoes

If you walk 1000 miles in your own shoes, does that mean you don't have to have the experience of walking in someone else's?

Today I was walking to the dungeon of the library to retrieve a journal for a patron. I say dungeon because we have periodicals stored in the very back and least lit corner of the first floor of the library. The area has been under construction and completely void of any human life for the past two months. Sometimes the lights don't even work, and we have to use a flashlight. Sometimes, trips down here scare me just a little. Anyway, the walk down is long, lonely, and silent. As I walked, I could hear a rhythmic clicking sound. It took me only a second to realize that it was a sound coming from my person, and only a few more moments to locate the sound as coming from my shoe. Sure enough, I pulled over to the side of the hallway and examined the bottom of my left shoe, to find that the sole is falling off. "

If I this scene were in a comic strip, and I had a thought bubble floating over my head it would have said, "What the heck? These shoes weren't cheepies from Payless-- I paid a good amount for them. Sure, I've worn them a lot this past year, but I've never worn a pair of shoes out to this extent, in this short amount of time..."or something like that. Probably less formal.

The clicking has persisted all day, and the sole is still trying to fall off. When I had a moment to ponder this situation though, it made sense. This is the first time in a long time I have had to walk to school every day. According to my calculations, if I walked to school every day this school year, that would equal around 108 miles. (It is .6 miles from my apartment to campus, and I am estimating 90 days per semester) Wow! That's a lot of miles! Of course, I don't wear the same pair of shoes every day, but this is the pair I wore on my New York trip where we walked another 100 miles. Literally.

It is a sad day, when you lose a trusted pair of footwear. However, summer is approaching, where I will just go barefoot anyway, so there is no need to fret.