She stared at my collections of shoes and said, if you have anything that you are retiring, please keep me in mind.What she doesn't know is that I am a typical shoe fetish. Over the years, I do not randomly purchase any shoes because I believe they are life companions that bear my weight, ornate my life, signify my style and side and walk with me the whole time.
I was a ballerina that does not dance ballet any more at the present day. My feet has long foretold the destiny of its lack of capacity in dancing. Due to the fact that my arch is not high enough so I suffered from sustaining cramps whenever I wore the pointe shoes and danced for twenty minutes. That was the main reason, the brutal one reason that forced me out of the path. In the short seven years, I learnt a lot in dancing, but more, in my own forceful manner of life, which has left me marks and scars on my body parts for life. And ever since I walked out of the dancing class, I only wear ballerina shoes for my casual wear, other than Converse and flip flops. As if doing so would relieve my pain in giving up the art.
There are only five brands of shoes that I wear. I have always been loyal to people that genuinely care about me, so have I been faithful for my shoes. True friends stay together no matter what. Good times or bad times, they don't make fun of your misery, they know your weakness and strengths because they are observant. Even if they hurt you incidentally, you do not give up on them because they would detect any sultry and subtle changes in your tones of speech, in your gesture and in your facial complexion and expression. Okay, I might be talking about my good friends, for I am mostly the timid and introvert one that does not open up so easily. Shamefully, I await my friends' rescues. While I appreciate the candor and loving nature of theirs, I also dwell on their initiatives. Sigh.
Like the few brands of shoes I stick with, my true friends have walked along with me throughout the journey, no interests interweave or bind us together, political and religious feud and differences can't separate us. Fortunately, they are sincere ones, unlike the hypocrites who await your fall, loiter like a vulture, plans to eat up your ego, sabotage your esteem and manipulate your emotions. True friends are not nosy at all. They are worthy of your trust that you'd confide with them freely whenever you are ready. We have our secrets and we feel free to talk about them and share them when we are confident and certain about sharing. Over the years, I have learned that expectations could burden the friendship, and thus mutual recognition and understanding are far more valuable than mutual obligation.
Pause. As usual, I digressed.
We thus walk along a long long way. Me and my shoes. I walk with them, I step in and feel them from within, and at times, I relieve them from duty as I walk barefoot on the grass, without my staunch and beautiful friends. After all, they prove to be as reliable as my all-weather shoes out of craftsmanship and genuine durable materials, as true friends would be.