Within the Broadcast Journalism course that I do at
University, we have something called a Newsday. It basically gives us the
chance to run round like headless chickens in our newsroom for one day a week
providing radio news bulletins on the hour every hour. It can be incredibly
demanding and stressful but also rewarding and I can safely say they are the
best part of my week.
I worked 3 jobs over the summer holidays and spent most of
my wages on smart dresses, trousers, tops, skirts and shoes to wear for these
Newsday’s. We are encouraged to perform in a way that we would in a real
newsroom, so being relatively smartly dressed is something that they ask.
Now, as I bought some pretty beautiful shoes with my hard
earned wages, I feel they all deserve regular outings, and totter out of my
flat in a selected pair in the assorted range of 4 inch heels every week – and
always live to regret it. By the end of the day, I am not thinking about my
feedback, the diaries I need to log when I get home or the food that I
desperately need to eat. No. I am thinking about my poor, painful feet.
You see, these heels may make me feel pretty ‘Carrie
Bradshaw – here to save the world one outfit and article at a time’, but by
around lunchtime, all I want to do is slip my tootsy’s into a fluffy pair of
slippers or ballerina flats.
Do I ever learn?
Men may carelessly say that we should “Take them off for a
bit!” but any stiletto wearing woman out there knows that putting them back on
again is just more painful than before! It’s best to suffer the original pain
than endure sore soles and excruciating agony to put them back on again –
that’s real stamina guys!
I can see from my disfigured feet that flat’s, well; they
would be the more sensible option. Comfortable, less of a tripping hazard, time
saving and sturdy (if you ever need to run after an interviewee down the road),
but to me they just don’t have the same appeal. You don’t ever hear someone say
“Ooh look at her plain black ballerina flat shoes, aren’t they gorgeous?”
On an everyday basis, I don’t like anything more than
slipping my feet into a nice sweet pair of flats, but why order a Steak and
Chips and then pass on the onion rings?
If you’re going to do something, do it properly. Don’t be
half-arsed about it.
I will get to my point eventually.
What started this was when I started thinking about that
point after breaking up with someone when you decide whether you can give it another go, or you’re just going to be friends. Whether you should just end the car crash
relationship right there or see if there’s still something to hold onto.
Making this decision is like deciding whether to wear heels
or flats.
Yes, the flats will be better for you in the long run. You
won’t be in pain and it also means you can do so many more things than if you
were balanced on 4 inch spikes. However, they just won’t feel as good as a pair
of heels; that feeling of sheer happiness, confidence and fabulousness when you
slip on a pair of heels. And even though you know it is going to hurt
eventually, you still wear them over and over again.
I know from experience. The rush to say “live for the
moment” can lead to us getting hurt again and again just because of the
short-term aspects. Wearing your heels again and again within short period of
time just leads to the heels no longer being bearable at all, yet we do it to
ourselves anyway.
It’s the same in life as well, we may decide to play it
safe, stay comfortable and protect ourselves from getting hurt or go all out
for the sense of sheer happiness without thinking of the inevitable fall from
grace. Wearing the flats just isn’t as appealing – is it better to have
incredible happiness for moment than never at all?
So, what do you choose?
From this day forward, I will no longer choose heels but
will not settle for flats either. I choose to go barefoot.
We can sometime be so busy running around in our heels or
flats to really know where we are and what we are doing. We don’t see what we
are walking all over never mind feel it. We lose all sensitivity to the world
under our feet by disengaging ourselves with pointless things.
Does anybody else love the feel of sand under your feet on
the beach when you slip off your shoes for the first time? That’s what I’m
going for here. For us all to be a little more grounded, stripped back without
the unnecessary. To not worry about the things we can’t control and savour the
things that we can.
For there is no better accessory to an outfit than yourself,
free of straps that hold you down and pain that you believe is inevitable by letting
someone see the real you. You are yourself, and there is no one else quite as brilliant
as you.
And no one will ever get you in a 50% off sale.
