new keds

February 6, 2007

when i was a kid in elementary school, i never understood the comics and cartoons that depicted children mourning the end of their summer days. i was always DYING to go back. first, because i was bored, and second, because starting a new school year was EXCITING!!! the highlights included:

new school supplies!: oh my god, shopping for these was possibly my favorite event of the year apart from my birthday. i still remember my second grade trapper keeper with fish and bubbles on it. i wish i still had it.

a new teacher who didn’t know things about me!: things like, that i once had my desk dumped into the hallway for messiness* and also my tendency to talk out of turn and say whatever came into my head without filtering. heh. although now i realize that teachers probably talk to each other about the kids before school starts, it was nice that i believed that i was starting with a clean slate each year. they would have figured me out soon enough, anyway.

a new chance to be COOL for once: HA. not with the glasses i sported, and my love for school supplies. but i’m glad that i thought i had a shot.

but most of all,

NEW KEDS!: this was the highlight of my year. my sister and i would get herded into the nearby buster brown shoe store and be alloted one pair of keds (the leather kind) and typically a pair of those brown eastland loafers (for more formal occasions) — the ones where everyone tied the laces into coils for no apparent reason. i wasn’t as keen on the loafers, but the keds — i loved my keds. i kept them nestled in their box until the first day of school, and even then i sometimes couldn’t bring myself to wear them. i thought there was some kind of magic in them when they were new and gleaming sparkling white, and i didn’t want to use it up until i absolutely couldn’t wait any longer. i would visit them sometimes in my closet, taking the box out just to look at them. i can clearly remember their leathery smell and the mysterious packs of silica gel (do not eat!).

i was a nerd, but at least i went all the way with it.

anyway, i thought of all this because after 2 months of doing absolutely nothing that felt productive, i was DYING to go back ‘to school’ today. i wore scrubs instead of keds, though, and my first assignment involved stitching up a pig’s foot. but that’s a story for another day (like tomorrow). tonight, it’s just all about the keds.

*well, i now cannot do anything productive unless my desk and surroundings are in proper order, so i guess they cured me.

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