Broken Shoes

WAAAaaaaaAAAAHhhh!

My favorite pair of shoes is spoilt.



The plastic buckle on the side of the right shoe has given way, and the elastic strap cannot be held down. All this happened while I was walking to the office from the carpark this morning. There seems no way I could mend the damage, and using scotch-tape to hold the buckle together is just oh-so-unglam and too disrespectful to the shoe.

The shoes have been with me for a good three or four years. They used to go with everything I would wear, and they would attend most occasions with me - work, travel, dancing, just walking anywhere everywhere. To be fair, they were the one and only favorite pair then; eventually, they moved their rank down to being 'one of the favorites'. I used to be so crazy over this particular pair, we actually bought them over eBay back then - our first ever Internet shopping transaction. We had actually bought two pairs - one in my rightful size 8 and the other a half-size smaller. Somehow I had strangely refused to let go of the half-size smaller pair - sell 'em, give 'em, whatever. I was thinking, the day might come when my favorite pair of shoes might be lost or spoilt, I could do with the one 'spare' pair then.

And keep the shoes I did, and the spare 7.5 shoes are sitting somewhere in a corner of my room now. Haha, weirdo, I know.


But then, is it really a good idea to give my favorite shoes a 'renewed' lease of life? Yes, from the outside, the looks are the same. But then, they really aren't the same and they might not fit as well anymore. Things that should be let go of... I should learn to let go of... right? If they're spoilt, they are spoilt, right? If they can't be part of your life anymore, no matter how much a part of your life they used to be, they just cannot be a part of you anymore, right?

Then again, the fact that I did something irrational like keeping an extra pair of the same shoes, just in case the first one wears out - and the fact that my original pair had to spoil in this small but crucial way when every part else still doesn't seem worn out - all these seem to fall in place right now as a matter of timeliness (and another act of God). It seems to be telling me: they're not all gone yet, you still have a renewed chance with your favorite shoes, remember now why you just had to do that crazy thing and save the extra pair? Now, go and take care of the new pair, appreciate and wear them with just about anything in your life.

I don't know. But the first thing on my mind, when I realized the shoe broke, was, "Thank goodness, I did that crazy thing and kept an extra pair." I am just so glad because to find that one special pair of favorite shoes that fits everything in your life (and your wardrobe) is never easy; and when you find it, you sure darn keep it.


I am so tormented, that I find signs in everything now. Even in my darned pair of broken shoes.

Somebody, help me. Wake my bloody idea up, and tell me shoes are just shoes, dodo.