Post by ludicrouslouisa on Feb 4, 2008 5:47:04 GMT
People may wonder why I hate shoes. It's because they hate me.
They also wonder why I only wear birkenstocks and runners. It's because everything else makes me feel like my foot is either being gnawed by an enraged beaver, or jammed into a small iron maiden. Pretty much every shoe I've tried on except converse have given me blisters, sometimes even on the top of my foot.
My Mum wonders why I never wear "nice leather shoes", it's because they kill me.
I don't wear high heels, (can't walk in them), and I take no pleasure in the evil, evil things we call footwear.
My poor feet have suffered various abuses over the years. I spent large portions of my childhood barefoot so I have callouses like a piece of shoe leather.
Now for school, I do a lot of walking. It's one of the only ways to get there, so walking for 50 minutes every day is not uncommon.
At the end of year 10, my feet started clicking. My knees grinding as I walked up stairs. I got large blisters on the bottom of my feet, and they ached constantly.
Turned out I'd inherited some lovely splay footed walking style. If I keep this up, I'll end up having lots of knee and hip replacements because all of my joints rotate in opposite directions.
So I have orthotics.
Started the year with brand new orthotics, and new shoes. These were school shoes supposed to be like runners. But they were bloody murder. I was assured that they'd wear in by a couple of weeks. Guess what. At the end of the year (and some days I'd walk more than an hour and 20 minutes), they were still giving me blisters! I actually now have heavily calloused heels as a result.
Turned out the back was too high.
So I got new shoes.
Today (fun fun fun) I got a try in my new shoes. They're doc Martens...and the sole is great, just the leather makes me feel like my feet are being crunched by an assortment of bricks.
People said "oh put on bandaids! Heaps of bandaids!"
I did so.
Well Dad offered me a lift to school, but I would have been there an hour and a half earlier than I needed to be. So I decided I'd walk, in the rain, with my new shoes.
BIG mistake. It was pure hell. Absolute agony. It took me 50 minutes of pain to walk a distance that would normally take me 25 minutes.
I walked like I had some serious disability, such as cerebral palsy or something, and groaned like an old woman every step. I was late to school, even though I'd given myself 15 minutes more than I normally needed to walk there.
People noticed and assumed I'd undergone some horrible injury during the holidays, leaving me permanently crippled.
Not so.
On the way home, I took off my shoes and walked home barefoot. Mud and puddles don't bother me. Worst injuries I ever sustained barefoot were a scratch on the bottom, standing on pine needles and rose thorns.
And after all that..look at my feet. I'm just glad I had bandaids, or it might have been worse.
A whole year of this...And they wonder why I hate shoes!
They also wonder why I only wear birkenstocks and runners. It's because everything else makes me feel like my foot is either being gnawed by an enraged beaver, or jammed into a small iron maiden. Pretty much every shoe I've tried on except converse have given me blisters, sometimes even on the top of my foot.
My Mum wonders why I never wear "nice leather shoes", it's because they kill me.
I don't wear high heels, (can't walk in them), and I take no pleasure in the evil, evil things we call footwear.
My poor feet have suffered various abuses over the years. I spent large portions of my childhood barefoot so I have callouses like a piece of shoe leather.
Now for school, I do a lot of walking. It's one of the only ways to get there, so walking for 50 minutes every day is not uncommon.
At the end of year 10, my feet started clicking. My knees grinding as I walked up stairs. I got large blisters on the bottom of my feet, and they ached constantly.
Turned out I'd inherited some lovely splay footed walking style. If I keep this up, I'll end up having lots of knee and hip replacements because all of my joints rotate in opposite directions.
So I have orthotics.
Started the year with brand new orthotics, and new shoes. These were school shoes supposed to be like runners. But they were bloody murder. I was assured that they'd wear in by a couple of weeks. Guess what. At the end of the year (and some days I'd walk more than an hour and 20 minutes), they were still giving me blisters! I actually now have heavily calloused heels as a result.
Turned out the back was too high.
So I got new shoes.
Today (fun fun fun) I got a try in my new shoes. They're doc Martens...and the sole is great, just the leather makes me feel like my feet are being crunched by an assortment of bricks.
People said "oh put on bandaids! Heaps of bandaids!"
I did so.
Well Dad offered me a lift to school, but I would have been there an hour and a half earlier than I needed to be. So I decided I'd walk, in the rain, with my new shoes.
BIG mistake. It was pure hell. Absolute agony. It took me 50 minutes of pain to walk a distance that would normally take me 25 minutes.
I walked like I had some serious disability, such as cerebral palsy or something, and groaned like an old woman every step. I was late to school, even though I'd given myself 15 minutes more than I normally needed to walk there.
People noticed and assumed I'd undergone some horrible injury during the holidays, leaving me permanently crippled.
Not so.
On the way home, I took off my shoes and walked home barefoot. Mud and puddles don't bother me. Worst injuries I ever sustained barefoot were a scratch on the bottom, standing on pine needles and rose thorns.
And after all that..look at my feet. I'm just glad I had bandaids, or it might have been worse.
A whole year of this...And they wonder why I hate shoes!