My Life with Shoes

I've had a weird relationship with shoes my entire life. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I learned to tie my shoes at a later age than most. This wasn't because I struggled with it, but more just because I refused to learn. I made my mom buy velcro shoes so I wouldn't have to tie them.

Then, once I got old enough  that it was difficult to find velcro shoes, I finally got shoes with shoe strings. I learned to tie my shoes, but I because obsessed with having the shoes tied as tightly as possible. I never thought I tied them tight enough, so I made my mom, dad, or grandma (depending on who was with us that morning) tie them instead. This was all because I had some weird fear of my shoes either coming untied or just falling off of my feet. (I've always had these weird sort of thoughts, and they've only changed to different things as I've gotten older.)

I was so obsessed with my shoes not coming untied that my mom began using double knots, and there hasn't been a day sense that I haven't double-knotted my shoelaces. Now it's more just because I find it easier than needing to retie them rather than any real fear. (Side note: this is why I absolutely loved the fact that Peeta double knotting his shoe laces was mentioned by Katniss in The Hunger Games series. I thought it was a nice little fact, and it made me think of all of this.)

My other weird habits with shoes is that I refused to wear anything but athletic shoes for the longest time (except a brief obsession with boots that I remember having). I think I only owned Nikes and Sketchers (although only ever Nikes after a certain age). I hated all other type of shoes. Plus, I'd only wear one pair at a time. It's funny when I see people with all kinds of shoes because to this day I only own a few. I have my Nikes, my Converse, a few flats for dressier occasions, and a few pairs of flip flops for the summer. I also still own a pair of Beaver Creeks and a pair of Crocs from when those were popular and I really liked them, but I really never wear them anymore.

It's actually funny because I far favor my Converse now more than anything, but I used to despise Converse. I'm not sure why, but I say them as the ugliest shoes and I just didn't understand why you'd wear them. Then suddenly I really started to like them, and eventually I got a pair. Now they're my favorite thing in the world, and I wear them all the time.

I like looking back on these sorts of things, even though it might be odd to other people. Why would I want to look back on my different feelings on shoes? I think it's interesting though. Plus, I feel nostalgic looking back on my different feelings at each age. I could do this with a lot of things of course, but I feel like shoes are one of the things that has really had a lot of different stages of feelings over my life.