Vans

I must confess, I hated elementary towards the end of the fifth grade. The kids I was friends with started changing and dressing different. The clothing style was surfer/skater attire and not one kid surfed/skated from the fifth or sixth grade. I knew those kids and at the time, none of them were surfers or skaters. I did not dress in the cool clothes because at the time there were deeper rooted problems at home and my father not wanting to shell out money for over priced articles of clothing.

My mother still worked at this clothing store and she started buying me these off brand outfits from there, believe me, I hated them. But at the time, she was buying them on her own and even though I was not wearing the cool clothes, I was still the same kid. Bless my mother’s heart for trying to keep me up to date in the clothing department. I was picked on about them but I cared not, they were just some kids following some trend and they really had no idea about how stupid they were about this trend.

In the middle of the sixth grade, my mother bought me a pair of those trendy shoes that everyone was wearing. They were called Vans; the colors were pink and purple checkerboard. I loved them before I even opened them, the box was a dead giveaway and then I saw the colors, they seemed girly and I did not want to wear them. I kept them in the box until the last day of school. I figured this; I got picked on for wearing “Pierre Bonnet” also known as “PB” why would I wear pink and purple shoes the rest of the year.

So, the last day of school, I geared up in jeans and a white t-shirt wearing my Vans, I did not get much notice at all until our teacher gave us the last couple of hours to really do nothing but enjoy the last hours of the sixth grade, that’s when my shoes were noticed. I was shocked that those shoes made that big of an impact of the whole class, the colors were not the same color patterns that were out and no one ever saw them. Two of the kids that I used to be close to could not stop looking at them and admiring them. Inside I was laughing but I was also very mad that I did not wear them sooner.  But this taught me a few life lessons.

(not my actual shoe, but close)