When I was in second or third grade, my dad bought me a pair of purple sneakers. It wasn’t my birthday or Christmas. It was just a regular day and he saw a pair of purple sneakers and thought I would love them. He knew I loved purple and assumed that I would love these sneakers. It was one of the coolest things he ever gave me. It was from the heart, random, and told me that he was thinking of me when I wasn’t even around.

Unfortunately, I was a stupid kid who was too embarrassed to wear the sneakers because in that time and place, unless your sneaks were white or black, you were weird. I was so concerned with what kids would say about the shoes that I cried after he gave them to me because I didn’t want to wear them. In my heart, I wanted to rock those shoes, but I always cared too much about what other people thought about me. I think, in all, I wore the shoes about 3 or four times in situations where I thought I was “safe.”

I’ve been thinking about those sneakers a lot lately. I loved them, but I think I hurt my dad’s feelings when I didn’t wear them that much. As an adult, I get that now. I am pretty good at giving gifts, but every once in a while, someone looks at you and looks at your gift and forces a “thank you.” I just don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to be more thankful and I want to wear purple sneakers proudly no matter what anyone else thinks about them.