Sole Searching

Close your eyes for a minute.
OK, now open them so you can read, but pretend they're closed.

Remember your first pair of really good running shoes?
They fit just right and for the first time you felt like you were in the PERFECT pair.
They held your foot snug, but not too snug.
They supported your arches. They protected your soles.
They never rubbed you the wrong way.
You would go miles and miles with no friction.
They were cute and just perfect in every way.

Or so you thought.

Suddenly and out of nowhere, the shoes seem to be falling apart.
Something is amiss.
And before you can say "Sneaker Freshener" they're gone.

Everyone tells you that there are plenty of shoes out there. You have to just look around. So you go to the local dive shoe store. Nothing there. People suggest going online, but that just isn't your style. And who knows what you'll end up with. You go to the fancy shoe store with professionals there to help you. You have to give it a try.

You take a pair home. They're OK. They fit and they're even a kinda cute. But something doesn't feel right. You can't get the other pair out of your head. What is with the first pair that made them so great? If only you could forget about them, then maybe you would be ready to slip into the new ones.

Then everyone tells you to stop looking. You'll find a pair on accident somewhere, probably on sale, when you're not looking at all. This is not what you want to hear. This does not make an iota of sense. If you don't have a great pair of sneakers, then aren't you ALWAYS looking, even when you're not technically "looking?"

So what's a girl to do? Just go around not wearing any sneakers? There are those incredible barefoot runners, but this girl is not one of them. This girl needs a new pair. And now her standards are so high, she is holding out for a pair that will really knock her socks off in ways she can't even imagine.

So the search continues.