Barefoot- One Day Without Shoes 2011

I never liked wearing shoes very much. I have a clear memory of one instance, actually, when I threw a temper-tantrum when forced to wear sneakers to go to the folk festival. "But summer's not over yet!" I had explained, tears streaming down my face. We play disc barefoot. I hike barefoot (sometimes. My podiatrist doesn't like this so much). Anything I can do in shoes, I believe I can do barefoot. Which is why I love today. Today, TOMS Shoes puts on a day for global poverty awareness, called One Day Without Shoes. It's exactly what it sounds like. The idea is that by going one day without shoes, you create enough hubub to tell people about the point of it all- thousands, maybe millions of people around the world go every single day without shoes. And while I fully support the barefoot lifestyle, that's just not alright. In many of the countries where this is a prevalent issue, not having shoes may lead to things like soil-transmitted infections, serious cuts, sores, and abrasions, and could also impact a child's education. You can read more about it on the TOMS website. So I've gone shoeless today, and I feel like I'm living on the edge. I wore flipflops this morning, just to get to our car, and to bring to school. I took them off before I got to the door of the school, and the water from the rain and the snow chilled the bottoms of my ankle braces (I'm now wearing both of them). I planned my outfit to most subtly allow me to go barefoot. This includes long pants and a more attractive top, the idea being that people will look UP instead of DOWN. Why all of this disgression? It's against our school dress code, apparently, to go barefoot (Which, by the way, is why so many kids in these countries need shoes. So they can go to school.), and I can see why. It's cold up here. People need shoes. And you don't relaly want 2,000 teenagers bouncing around barefoot all the time. Not that 2,000 of us would. I don't think that too many of my teachers will care today, and some of them might even get behind the idea. But I brought those flipflops just in case some one especially stuffy comes by and insists that I'm committing some travesty by not wearing shoes. If I could do this (almost) every day, I would. What I really should invest in is a pair of these. At first glance, it almost looks like you're wearing shoes. On the note of being barefoot, I'm going to campaign a little bit. The idea of going barefoot is gross to some, and there IS a reason why TOMS sends shoes to people in third world countries. There are times when you should wear shoes. There are gross things you can get. But what about barefoot running? It's pretty darn good for you. Also, if you've never tried walking around barefoot somewhere, I'd recommend it. There's this serious satisfaction when people ask, "Are you...barefoot?", and you can just smile and say, "Yes...yes I am".