Shoes

Sometimes it is the little things, even if your feet aren't so little.

For the past two years I have participated in Tom's Day Without Shoes. The first year, my freshmen year of college, I was commuting from my suburban home to Pottstown, another suburb. Driving a car without shoes, walking in and out of academic buildings sans shoes, even trekking across the parking lot shoeless was not a huge burden.

Transition to the next year. I am living in North Philadelphia. Tom's Day Without Shoes was a chilly, rainy day in March. It also happened to be on a day when my sister was visiting the city, and invited me to Reading Terminal to meet her for lunch. So yes, I am one of the very few who has consciously chosen to go shoeless on the Philadelphia Subway system. Needless to say being shoeless in the city of brotherly love was no cakewalk.

48 hours, over 2 years, spent without shoes allowed me to grasp what a privilege it is to have something to put on my feet.