Size 8

You can tell a lot about me, from the shoes I wear day in and day out. This is odd as I am not a fashionista in any sense of the word. As a child, I swore by my red Keds with crisp white laces. They were my badge of courage so to speak. My childhood was by turns terrifying and exceptional. It changed me profoundly with its sharp incisions and turbulent storms. My blood red Keds seemed to be the perfect foil for this point of my life. 
 
By my early teen years, I was in love with white van slip-ons that I wore with everything. I was for this brief point in my life (a summer really) carefree. Spending long days at the beach with only my skates and a bikini and little on my mind but sand, surf, and boys-- my vans just fit. Then during the dark years from sixteen to twenty, I wore so many different shoes—none of them are even remembered. There was not one defining pair, as I was lost and trapped and without my own voice-run roughshod over by a personality who could stand little deviation from his own. 
Funny, just recently I found myself wanting to get a pair of red Keds to go with my jeans… and my Cowboy boots, I dug them out of the belly of my closet the other day—they still fit better than ever—and I don’t feel like running anymore… 

Once freed from the dark years, I discovered my voice again and this is when I found them-my boots. These cowboy boots would take me all over the place and would be worn out and resoled more than once. They were the most comfortable pair of shoes ever. They became the accessory…tucked under jeans, with my short skirts and dresses, even with shorts. They were fierce these boots, just like I was becoming. With these boots I achieved an education, traveled the world, founded a business, and found out that I really was stronger than I ever imagined. In the last ten years my shoes have been running shoes. This shoe belies more than I like to think about…as I have been running from myself, my past, and my life.