If These Shoes Could Tell a Story
How a $20 pair of shoes walked me into a new life
If these shoes could tell a story…
They’d probably start by telling you that I brought them to train for a half marathon (who tf was I kidding).
I did manage to get myself up to 10k, but they’ve seen some serious mileage since I brought them back in 2018…
They’ve seen 5am rave ups, walks of shame, and next day comedowns…
They’ve seen long days on building sites and been splattered with all colours of emulsion and gloss…
They’ve walked me onto a one way flight away from my home country… And out the other side into the sticky Mumbai heat.
They’ve seen Goan jungles and a New Year eve party on the beach. They’ve walked along perilous cliff edges above 100 metre drops into the Arabian Sea.
They’ve boarded tuk-tuks, the back of a meth-head’s 300cc motorbike, and 34-hour train journeys across the Indian subcontinent…
They’ve trekked up Himalayan mountain passes, toiled in the mud of subsistence farms, and paddled in the ice cold water of the Ganges.
I wore them as I danced to devotional singing in Rishikesh, left them outside countless temples and holy sites (someone stole my socks from inside them one time in Hampi!), and even climbed onto an elephants back.
They’ve stood nervously in a packed-out 30°C covid test centre in Kathmandu, surrounded by wheelchair bound patients sucking oxygen from a can….
They’ve seen it all.
Once upon a time they were a sick pair of fresh creps, but those days are done. Now they’re just battered and bloodied workhorses.
Since I left the UK, money has been too tight to justify buying a new pair when these badboys area still serving their basic function. But through writing, I’m getting myself into a situation now where luxuries like new clothes and shoes is actually a reality.
But we’ve been through so much together…
I’m emotionally attached…
I think I will wear them until they literally fall off my feet.
Where will that be, and what adventures will they will live though until that time?
Your guess is as good as mine.