If you knew me as a little girl, you would probably think that there wasn’t a pair of shoes in my closet. I never wore shoes when I was little: I hated them! There was something about walking in the fresh soil my dad had tilled up in the garden, the fresh-cut grass on the lawn, or the chilly creek in our back field. I grew up on a farm, so there were endless fields and woods to wander through, and I chose to do it barefoot.

As I grew older, shoes become more necessary to me. I didn’t just need shoes for certain things, I began to want all of the trendy new shoes that everyone else was wearing, and I gradually grew out of the stage when my feet were so calloused I couldn’t even feel the rocks underneath my feet in the driveway.

Although now I love my shoes and enjoy wearing different ones each day, when spring rolls around, I’ll slip off my shoes and walk outside; I am a little kid again back on the farm. It’s amazing how the little things that used to be our daily lives as children can have such an affect on us as adults.