As a business major, I am always required to dress business professional for presentations and events. This usually means a pencil skirt, a dressy top, possibly a blazer, and business appropriate high heels. The only issue that I struggled with during my first two years as a business student was being able to walk in heels. I truly had only ever worn heels to my junior and senior prom then my high school graduation ceremony. I knew that as I got older, I would need to wear more professional footwear for the workplace. I always aspired to be those girls who would be able to walk effortlessly in heels. I felt like I was never able to keep my balance or walk gracefully at my attempts of wearing high heels in college. As my junior year was approaching, I set myself the goal to wear a type of high heel once a week, every week for the Fall 2016 semester.
Having a goal at the start of the semester was a way to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone. Besides forcing myself to practice walking in high heels, I told myself that whenever I wore heeled shoes that I would also wear a nice outfit to match. We all face days of body insecurities, but I figured that there would be one day a week where I would dress nice along with heels to help boost my confidence.
Before the semester began, I bought different types of heeled shoes from different stores like Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe. I did mainly have thick heeled shoes since those are more my style. The first month consisted of very tired feet and plenty of blisters. I challenged myself to wear the shoes from the start of the day which was usually around 9 am to the end of the day which usually ranged from 9-11 pm. That is a lot of hours in high heels, but if I did not fully commit to this promise, then I would not be practicing enough. In the workplace, people usually do not get to decide when they can sit down or how much walking they will do in a workday. One good thing is that my campus is not too big, but I still did plenty of walking throughout one day.
Since I was dressing nice on the days that I chose to wear heels, I noticed my confidence was increasing throughout the weeks. Personally, wearing heels was always something I never thought I could do. I felt like I would not be able to ever keep my balance or walk comfortably since heels are marketed as an uncomfortable shoe choice. At the start, I was very self-conscious with how I walked in heels. There were many times where I almost fell, which left me even more self-conscious because one of my biggest fears with starting this journey was falling on my face in front of others at school. Despite the fear of falling, I pushed myself to keep practicing. In addition, my friends were very supportive of my goal and their encouragement helped during the days that I did not want to wear heeled shoes.
To be honest, I did not think I would be able to accomplish this goal. Some days I did not have any motivation to wear heels, let alone dress nicely. Thanks to my determination, I can walk a lot better with heeled shoes. My confidence is better than what it was at the start of the Fall semester. I highly recommend setting a goal like mine. It could be to practice drawing or to practice doing a certain hair style. Whatever it may be, just remember that practice is key.
