I am Shoe.

A tender story about childhood imagination, creativity, lost dreams, and how a second-grade essay about a cow and a shoe led me back to the joy of writing.

“Shoes weren’t shoes, they were a journey.” ~Goodmoodism

When I was in second grade, I entered an essay competition at the place where my mom used to work. The topic was shoes. Most kids probably started with, “Once upon a time, there was a shoe…”

Not me.

I began with:

I am a cow. I’m running around a wide green field, the sun is shining, the grass is sweet, and I’m happy.

One day, I was taken from that field. My life as a cow ended, but another life began. My skin became something new: I was now leather. I am smooth and strong.

Soon, I found myself in a workshop. I was stretched across a table, traced with chalk, and cut into unusual shapes. I was stitched and sewn, folded and bent. A firm and flexible thing was attached beneath me.

I was taken to a shop and placed on a shelf. People picked me up, and put their feet inside me, walked a few steps, then put me back again.

And then one day, someone slipped me on, smiled, and said to the guy who brought me here. “These shoes are perfect. I’ll take them.”

That’s the moment I understood. This is who I am. I am Shoe.

I was only in second grade, but that essay won the prize for most creative.

The truth is, I loved writing as a kid. Essays were my favorite. But I had a problem: spelling. In every language I learned (and I learned three-and-a-half), my brain decided to rebel. I could pour my heart into words but still second-guess whether “receive” had the “i” before the “e.” Honestly, becoming trilingual and still misspelling might be my most underrated talent.

Over time, that discouraged me. Life piled on, as it does, and little by little I forgot how much I loved writing essays and stories.

Now here I am, years later, remembering that cow-turned-shoe essay and realizing something: I still love to write and Goodmoodism is my way of finding my way back to that little kid who loved to write and saw stories in everything.

So here’s to rediscovering old loves, to listening to that second-grader inside us, and to writing stories, no matter what.

What’s something you loved as a kid that you’ve found your way back to?

With a smile,
Goodmoodism :D