When I joined the amazing sisterhood of Kappa Alpha Theta in the spring of last year, the natural way of getting to know my new sisters was through the painfully shared experiences of playing icebreaker games. Customary to any new group of "strangers," icebreakers have become the assumed foolproof way to 'get people talking.' As an introvert and bonafide hater of such games, one activity, however, got me thinking about something much more than the faces of my new sisters sitting around me in the Theta house. Essentially, the game that changed it all was accomplished by each girl sharing the last best thing she did in the shoes she was wearing. It was such a strange experience, not only to be asked to think about your shoes and what you did in them, but what was most memorable, too.
As busy people swallowed in the repetitive machinery of our lives, it is not common to associate memories with a pair of shoes. However frequent this non-association may be, I think that our shoes should be given a bit more credit in the realm of fulfilling the tangible fabric of our lives. After all, it is our shoes that neither follow nor lead us to where we go; they are a part of us in each memory, in each place, and in each direction. It is our shoes that hold our feet, that walk the new grounds as we do, that take wrong turns, and that come with us, as a part of us, home.
During the icebreaker game played last spring, I remember wearing my favorite pair of Anthropologie slippers. I have had those shoes for the greater part of four and a half years, and they have undoubtedly received their deserved use. In this regard, it was a difficult task to recollect the last best memory shared in them, but I nevertheless found the answer. My family and I took a trip to Eastern Europe the summer before I started college, and during that trip I crossed off the first item on my bucket list: visiting the Haigia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. In some crazy coincidence kind of way, I came to realize that the slippers I was wearing in the Theta house were the same shoes that were there with me on one of the most moving and memorable days in my life. In this moment, I felt a rush of respect for something I've always viewed as a simple, necessary commodity. My shoes were with me when I saw the world and they are here with me today, as I continue to experience life.
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From this point, I have instilled a new attitude toward the notion of shoes, for every pair has so many stories to tell. Your shoes experience life with you, as a part of you, and for me, that is something quite magical. I have found it fun to sometimes pause during the day and think about the moments that I've shared with the shoes I am wearing. Each pair has walked many paths, brought me to many places, and given me so many memories. So for that, I am nothing but grateful.
#HonorYourShoes :)
