Translated…
When I was younger, I always go through two pairs of shoes a year. After the New Year’s Eve’s meal, my mother would hand a pair of new shoes to me, and, I was so excited, holding on to my new dress shoes, couldn’t sleep because of how ecstatic I was, and felt, that New Year’s Eve lasted the longest.
Because it’s not made with real leather, my sole would usually get torn up by August, and, when school started on September first, followed by the rainy seasons of the winter, my mother would buy me a pair of dark blue or dark floral printed canvas shoes; and, whenever I thought that this, was the only pair of shoes I have for the second half of the year, I’d, especially, cherished it so.
On the summer of my fourth grade year, I received a brand new pair of pink sandals. My mother told the stories of how she fougth a woman for it at the marketplace, and it’d only cost her $20N.T.s, I’d placed the shoes on my palms, looked at it closely, at the little yellow flowers printed on it, I was, so very, excited. But, as my sister came home from school, she’d grabbed onto my new sandals and started to cry, and my mother told me, that I’m older, that I should, let her have it, I’d told mom, that it wouldn’t, fit her, and my mother couldn’t deal with our arguing incessantly, and told us, that she would, give the pair away to someone else, then, I’d rock-paper-scissors with my younger sister, to decide who gets to wear them first, I won.
with the pink straps and all too!!!
The very first time I’d put on that pair of pink sandals, my white skin immediately got the attention that they deserved, it felt extremely cool, wearing that pair of sandals in the summer, I’d floated everywhere I went, I can’t wait for the summer to be over, that way, I get to wear the sandals to school for a classmate, Fang, to see, she’d often laughed on how my sneakers made me looked like a boy. That day, the sun set too quickly, I’d held on to the shoes, handed them over to my younger sister, prayed for my turn to wear them to come quicker.
The second day, I watched as my sister wore that pair of oversized sandals, I couldn’t help but laugh, I felt, a bit, jealous; the entire morning, I’d become, lethargic, couldn’t bring myself about to do anything, until my younger sister came home in the noon hour, with the sandals in her hands, said, that because it was too big, as they’d played, one of her friends stepped on the back, and broke the back straps, and it broke. This time, my sister didn’t throw a temper tantrum, but I’d, started, crying over that pair of pink sandals I’d only worn for a day and cried.
As I grew up, I’d become, a shoe fanatic, shopped for shoes every chance I got, and I’d, sorted through the shoes I bought, and took turns wearing them as the seasons fitted, my shoes were always, clean and durable. A few years ago, in the summer, I’d left home, alighted a train, and on that long journey, I’d looked down at my pair of pink sandals, and, it’s, awaken my loss during that summer long ago, and I couldn’t help, but feel sad again.
picture from the papers…
This pair of pink sandals took me into that lone alley in the heated summers, it’d met the small town with me, read through the books, and, my sense of loss for my childhood years slowly, got dismissed. For the two summers that followed, I’d, worn it to and for, until I’d graduated from grad school, it was still, right there, with me.
The same pink sandals, had, become more of a company than the sorrowful memories that accompanied me through childhood. And now, this pair of pink sandals retired inside of my closets, the moment I’d opened up the closet doors, I’m filled with, these pink memories.
So, it’s still the experience, the emotions that are attached, to that pair of pink sandals that’s made you nostalgic, and, you must’ve lost your innocence, after your younger sister came home with the back straps broken off it, which is why, you’d become, fixated with the pink strapped sandals, which is why you’re prone to buy more that fitted you now…
Life, the Obstacle Course 