Got my boots on...

Only a few more days.

I put my boots on today, to try & break them in. I can already tell where there may be a sore spot or potential blister.

Really though, I can't help but be reminded of the last time I needed to get boots....I was 14 yo. I was going on a mission w/ an organization called Teen Missions. Boots were a major requirement. I knew I was supposed to go but for some reason I didn't know how to articulate it to my mom when it was realized & suggested I transfer to a different team that cost less. I didn't have all the necessary financial support for this particular team.

Thinking back now, I don't know how the rest of the money came about. Maybe my parents paid for it themselves. They never mentioned it.

But the boots....they weren't attractive, but they would do the job. They had a height requirement & they actually would measure them to make sure the sides fit the description & if not---bye bye! They were practically embarrassing to wear!

They started out so nice & clean & bright, that yellowish boot color. ya know? By the end, they were dirty, worn in & comfortable. AND very muddy. lol 'Boot camp' (really, that's what they called it) was in Florida, very tropical. It would suddenly begin to rain & there was no warning except you could hear it coming. It took a few seconds for it to arrive right on you but you could hear it hitting down on the leaves of the trees. It was hot & humid but the rain would be refreshing and heavy. It was no CA drizzle. It was pouring, soaking wet rain.

Then it would stop as suddenly as it started. All the while the sun was shining. Definitely NOT Ca! lol

Those boots walked me through the swampy mud of that boot camp in Florida, the airport of NY and the grey streets of England. On the way back my boots took me through NY, where I stayed w/ my grandfather I barely knew, (& had only met a handful of times) for a few days & met the 'Puerto Rican' side of my family. They took me through the dirty NY subway w/ the cold hard, plastic seats, which were quite a contrast to the cushioned, fabric seats of the English tubes & trains.

I had no use for those boots once I got home. They sat in my closet. Eventually they were loaned out, never to be seen again. I regret that. I haven't forgotten what they look like though. Or maybe I have? But I certainly haven't forgotten their significance.

In the end, the boots no longer seemed embarrassingly garish & awkward. They felt as if I had always had them & always worn them. A part of me now. As if, you'd think, doesn't everybody wear big boots?