I hate it when someone says I have a ‘passion’ for sneakers. I grit my teeth when people say this to me. I have stopped many people in their tracks when they say to me ‘it’s so cool that you’re so passionate about sneakers.’ ⁣⁣
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No, I *LIKE* sneakers. I’m passionate about the principals I want to live my life by. I’m passionate about my family and my friends. I’m passionate about my creativity and I’m passionate about my struggles and my successes. I’m passionate about the things I want to do in my life. I am NOT passionate about a consumer good. I enjoy and like shoes – much, MUCH more than the average person, but by no means am I ‘passionate’ towards sneakers. ⁣⁣
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It actually makes me feel like I’m a bad person…or…something more like a superficial person. I wish people said things like ‘Oh, you’re passionate about taking care of your kids’ or ‘You’re passionate about being a teacher.’ I really don’t want to hear that I’m passionate about something that is so easily attainable.⁣⁣
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Maybe I only hate this one because I feel like it’s a reflection of exactly the kind of person I don’t want to be – ie: someone who just cares about money and possessions. What’s funny is that the shoes I care the most about – the reason I care about them so much is because they have to do with the people I’ve met and the people I know and the experiences we’ve shared. The stories I tell about my sneakers almost always come back to a connection I built with another person. Shoes are cool and all that but in the grand scheme of things, I care about people way more than I care about things. ⁣⁣
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What sneaker ‘pet peeves’ do you have?⁣⁣