My professor bought these wham-bangy new shoes to celebrate the grant she just won. “I always buy a new pair of shoes when I reach a major accomplishment,” she told our class. “For one, I love shoes. Secondly, every time I wear them it reminds me of all the small steps I had to take to get here.”
I LOVE that. I totally think we Military Spouses (um, just the ones who care about shoes, natch) should adopt the practice. Some time during the first week after departure, we all ought to go out and buy a pair of deployment shoes.
Wait just a minute, you. This is not a message telling you to go out and buy a $900 pair of Christian Louboutin metal stiletto suede pumps with the fabulous red soles just because you deserve them. You do deserve them. It is just that these shoes have to be something you can afford. These shoes are for your soul. Debt isn’t really a soul-healing thing.
That said, as long as you really can afford them, these shoes can be anything you want. The only requirement is that they must represent a message you want to send yourself about the deployment. Here are some meanings you could attach to your shoes:
- Running shoes–you have miles to go before you sleep.
- Red rubber boots–you will have to slug through a lot of crap in the next few months and you might as well look cute while you are doing it.
- Spiky heels–you need to stand a little taller for deployment.
- Chuck Ts–you will do this deployment in your own funky little way, dammit.
- Flipflops–because a beach really is in your future. (Or because you are in the Military, too, and Heaven knows what is growing on the floor in the shower…)
- Hiking boots (or coolio boots that look like they may have originally been designed for hiking or riding horses but now sport a fabulous heel and you can’t resist ’em) because it is all uphill from here.
- Sparkly party shoes–because happy things will happen to you during deployment and you wanna be ready.
Remember, concentrate on what the meaning behind these shoes is going to be. You really are in control of how you decide to handle this deployment. Just take it one step at a time.
About Jacey
I’m the Editor of SpouseBuzz.com, author of The Homefront Club and These Boots. I’m also a Military life consultant in Washiongtion, DC. My newest CD I Married a Spartan: The Care and Feeding of your Military Marriage is available on iTunes and Amazon. Check out JaceyEckhart.com for more info!
