Finding School Shoes

I have a love-hate relationship with trips to the mall for school shopping. That big box of capitalism is filled with swarming consumers, overzealous salesladies and big, glaring "Free this!" or "Sale that!" as if the world would end tomorrow. This kind of scenario was begrudgingly (though not unexpectedly) met by yours truly when I entered the sacred halls of mallburbia.

Of course, I knew that people would get sucked into malls like vampires thirsting for blood. I knew trouble was in the air when we saw A LOT of cars in the parking space. But since gasoline is precious and time is golden, we braved through. It was like going to a sanitized war of wits and wills.

Mom and I went to the mall's department store looking for black school shoes. My old ones were now skinned, peeled and aching to smile. What met us were rows and rows of shoes that looked all the same. I began to feel agitated, twiddling my fingers and clasping my hands together as if I had an alien hand I was trying to control. Mom asked me what I wanted and I, being the undecisive freak that I am, only gave her a blank stare and a mumble of "I don't know....".

We proceeded to idly look and feel the shoes but then a salesman came rushing by us (rhinoceros!!!) asking us what shoe do I want to fit.Woah!Hold on there amigo!My thinking brain wasn't in full gear yet. I was still like a gullible consumer waiting at the first sign for a sale. Thankfully, mom was there to give him "the cold stare of back-off!".

Sooooo, mounting anxiety of finding the right shoe later, we see a well-lighted and not too densely populated niche in the shoe department. A helpful saleslady was there (the ones that don't pounce on you) to give the lowdown. Mom and the saleslady were giving me questioning looks because I still couldn't decide which shoe to fit first. I was beginning to sweat like hell. The spotlight and anxiety were driving me crazy!

First shoe:too big.Second:too small.Third,fourth,fifth:Too big,small,ugly,weird....and finally!We settled on that perfect fit. The feeling of finding the black shoe is like finding a needle in a too big,small,ugly and weird haystack.

The mall is one big scary place and finding the right shoe is like finding the Holy Grail. But if the shoe fits, it's like finding that one right thing in an otherwise hyped-up and misguided world.