Shoes ... so appealing, so painful

Anum Khan, a student at Whitney High School in Cerritos, writes:

Like battle wounds from a brutal fight, my shoes have permanently scarred me. There are scars where the shoes cut the back of my foot (around my ankle). My heel has skin coming off, and my toes are bruised.

This is what my feet are left to after one day of walking at journalism camp at Stanford. So it must come as no surprise that I live in my flip-flops.

Yes, the flimsy black ones with strawberries on top (with beading that is slowly coming off). And it’s not that they are the most comfortable things ever. Or that I have some freakish childhood memory related to them that makes me reach for them every time I leave the house.

And of course it’s not that I don’t like shoes (gasp).

It’s just that almost every pair I buy hurt my feet. Blisters, bumps, nicks, red spots, tight toes ... I’ve faced it all.

I must admit, I love heels. And in the store, they always seem so comfortable (and that 25%-off tag doesn’t hurt either) that I buy them.

Then comes the moment of truth: wearing them outside. First, I notice uncomfortable-ness.

It’s nothing, I tell myself. But I know it’s denial. Within five minutes, my toes seem to have gone numb. Then the blisters begin to form.

Maybe I’m just buying the wrong type of shoes. But this happened with four pairs, so I decided I would just live in the strawberry flip-flops with the beading coming off until fate decided otherwise.

I’ve bought one pair of white heels, one pair of Keds shoes (those ads in Seventeen featuring Mischa Barton worked, I guess) and a pair of white shoes (yes, proper shoes) with stars.

I mean, they have lasted me three years (pools, summer camps, icky dorm showers, even Canada), so I figured they could go at least another...20 years?

But my mom, who couldn’t even fathom going to school in flip-flops in India (she always reminds me of the day that she forgot to wear white shoes to school for PE and got in trouble) decided to take me shopping.

Well, the heels turned out to be OK for short walks, but anything over half a mile, forget it. The Keds, on the other hand, are the cause of the condition stated above.

As for those white shoes, I haven’t taken them for a test walk yet. There’s no way they could replace my flip-flops, but maybe, just maybe, I won’t be restricted to one pair of shoes. Yeah, right.

Comments

[BarkingDogShoes.com]

Hi, your shoes are darling but have no arch support and are flat as a pancake which can cause heel spurs and heel pain (plantar fasciitis). Try some Chaco flip flops if you must wear them--they have arch support and are cute too. Take care of your feet now while you're young :) Your feet will thank you when you're older.