Barefoot Adventures in school

Throughout my life, I have loved being barefoot, and I even managed to go to school barefoot at a few times during my K-12 years, and now that I'm in college, I can go barefoot anytime anywhere, but in school there was always a rule requiring shoes. I managed to slip under its radar a few times, though. A few times, even with my buddies Bartolomeo and Giovanni.
In kindergarten, we had a pajama day. It was a rainy day, and sometime in early spring. Well, me, Bart, and Gio all woke up in our pajamas (duh), but we had a clever excuse for going barefoot: it's pajama day, and we don't wear shoes to bed, so why wear them with pajamas? We managed to slip out the door before our parents were awake, and we all stood at the bus stop in the rain in our pajamas and bare feet. We got a couple remarks. We boarded the bus barefoot, got to school, played outside in the rain barefoot until school started, then went indoors. We had our party that day, and then went to recess, of course barefoot (recess was so much more fun barefoot). When we got back inside, our class watched a movie, which is when I got a rather strange remark. One of the girls at the table I sat at leaned in to me, and said, "hey, your feet are really nice." I thanked her for the compliment, but then here came the strange remark: "Can I rub them? Pleeeeease?" Strange, even at that age, but I just thought what the hell, and let her, if only to keep her quiet.

It was pretty much the same thing in first grade. Actually, the exact same thing happened.

In second grade, similar, only without anyone begging to rub my feet.

In third grade, the whole third grade class went on a field trip to hike one day. Of course, that was the day we all chose to bare our soles. It felt great. Of course, at the time, our feet weren't yet accustomed to rough terrain completely. Some, but not that much. We managed to do the whole thing without stopping, but later the pain seared.

Fourth grade, we visited one of Idaho's oldest landmarks, the Cataldo Mission. We went barefoot that day, it was a lot more fun that way.

In both fifth and sixth grade, we went to a track and field event, and of course we did it barefoot both years. It was a lot of fun, getting our feet dirty on that track, feeling nature beneath our soles, feeling our feet and soles getting stronger every step. Those same years, every Friday, if we got all our homework done, we'd go outside for the last hour or so of the day. Now we didn't go barefoot those days, but we ditched the shoes as soon as we got outside.

Not to mention that all through grade school, we got three recesses a day, and when it was warm enough, we'd always ditch the shoes as soon as we got outside.

In seventh and eighth grades, we all had to take some state tests. If we scored proficiently on them, we earned a lunch off campus the following Friday. We got all four off campus lunches in seventh grade, and all three in eighth grade. Of course, those were the days we decided to go barefoot. We also had to take PE both years, and of course we did every activity barefoot. That includes the warm-up jog, fitness tests, the mile final (we had to go to the outside track, and run it within ten minutes. I don't think we could have passed with shoes), basketball, badminton, etc. We always hated PE class, but it was a lot more fun barefoot. Otherwise, we never would have survived.

Then came High school, where barefoot time was severely restricted. Every year, we all participated in an event that, if we raised enough money per person, we earned an outdoor activity day. All four years, we went barefoot on those days. Our senior year, we also had an additional outdoor activity day on our last day, which we did barefoot as well. Me Bart and Gio were also all in the band, and anyone in band had to play for football games. We did all those games barefoot all four years as well. We learned that we could not stand very still, as the temperatures dropped quite a bit by the middle of the game. Every year, we also all played for a basketball game, and we did those barefoot too.

Now that we're in college, we're able to do a lot more barefoot. Right up until temperatures dropped, we went barefoot from the time we woke up till we went to bed. We attended classes barefoot, managed to sneak into the eating establishment barefoot, and walked a few trails barefoot when we had time.

Now that temperatures have plummeted, we're working out barefoot in the student rec center to maintain our foot strength and sole thickness/toughness. Well, we haven't started yet, but next week, we are. I'll be back to update how that went. More updates to come as life goes along, offering more barefoot opportunities.
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Barefootconservative
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