Everyone has their 'quirks.' For me, it's my feet, more specifically my toes. I must be able to wiggle my toes and feel like they have room to breathe. I need the wiggle room. It puts me at ease. Not being able to move my toes is one of the only things that will make me panic. I remember sitting in Econ class in college one Fall day, cursing myself for wearing such thick socks with my boots. I had tuned out the professor with thoughts of trying to make room in the toebox of my boots. I think I was a Freshman or a Sophomore and I was doing everything I could to get my toes to move without losing my cool and running out of the classroom...wiggle violently in hopes my socks would compact and give me some room; not move my toes at all and try to focus on my geeky professor (obviously this one failed immediately), taking deep soothing breaths to slow my racing heart. Finally I couldn't take it any longer and unzipped my mid-calf brown boots, pulled my foot out just enough and then all the panic faded away as I wiggled my little piggies.
This craziness is not something that set-in in college. No, this started in elementary school. I remember sitting on the floor of my baby sitter's house one morning fiddling with my socks to get them just right so that I would have breathing room when I put my foot into my shoe. But I couldn't get the socks to stay in place and the socks would suffocate my toes as I gingerly slid my foot into my shoe. I was frustrated and it's very possible there were tears. And I almost missed the bus that morning. Seriously.
So when the subject of toe wiggling came up in conversation last weekend I felt like I had met a long lost sister. Immediately this girl and I started swapping stories about our crazy need to have wiggle room in our shoes. Pretty soon we had another chick joining in our convo with her quirky tendencies.
Isn't it amazing how the things we find so unique and quirky about ourselves can be the catalyst for making connections with new people? I love it.
