At first it felt unnatural and dirty.
As I drove to campus I knew what I was doing was wrong-at least on some level. And when I emerged from the Bryan Center parking garage I was visibly insecure. By the time I reached the Chapel, however, I began to embrace the experience of not wearing shoes.
For it truly was an experience.
I took a liking to the smooth stone leading me to the academic quad and found the dewed grass both a source of comfort and invigoration for my un-calloused, vulnerable feet. In a way I felt freer. As for the looks I received... they were a cross between confusion and judgment.
I spent one afternoon sans footwear in an attempt to understand why senior Babylonia Aivaz and junior David Hershey kick it barefoot all day, every day.
"It's kind of an issue of comfort so like when I'm not wearing shoes my feet aren't suffocated and so it makes me feel like better on the inside," Hershey says.
Aivaz also cites comfort and freedom among her primary reasons. She also notes that the lack of shoes make her feel more grounded, and heightens her senses. For her it is a "textual experience."
"Feet are another appendage-they're just like your hands and your hands feel a lot of things," she says.
"I love feeling under my feet-like going from crunchy grass, to cement, to wet mud and having it squish under my toes."
Aivaz references hygiene and individuality as additional reasons for her aversion to shoes. Because she is also reluctant to put on socks, when she does wear shoes she develops myriad infections from nail toe fungus to athlete's foot.
And then there's the whole image thing.
It seems not wearing shoes does for aspiring hippies what Chuck Taylors do for aspiring hipsters.
"Depends on how you define hippie. In some sense I try to be-it's more of an image," Hershey says.
"There's my environmentalism, which is generally associated with hippies, but I don't like walk around naked all the time and I'm not always high. I just have long hair and walk around barefoot," he adds.
But Hershey and Aivaz, can both be found digging through trash cans around campus to rescue recyclables for which they get dirty and astonished looks.
"Duke really makes me sad," Aivaz says, noting that students simply aren't environmentally conscious.
Both admit it is structurally difficult to recycle at Duke given the dearth of recycle bins. Regardless, Hershey has seen students walk past recycle bins to toss plastic bottles into the garbage. As an employee of Duke Recycles, Hershey seemes particularly vexed.
Another source of frustration for the two shoeless students is the potential of getting denied service or being ejected from on-campus eateries.
Aivaz and Hershey prove the, "No shoes, no service" rule is enforced at Uncle Harry's, the Great Hall, Subway, the Marketplace and even the greenest dining locale at Duke: The Refectory.
"My own people kick me out," says Aivaz, an active member of Students for Sustainable Living, remarkes. Among other environmental endeavors, SSL is responsible for Green Dining-that is, buying locally grown and organic food. See: The Refectory at Duke Divinity School.
Before heading to lunch on my barefoot afternoon, I feared I would be ejected mid vegan chili consumption. My palms sweating, I meandered to the Divinity School as if traversing a minefield.
But Aivaz and Hershey don't live in fear of potential injuries. During his years barefoot, Hershey has only once stepped on a piece of broken glass. He pulled it out and was left with just a small cut.
"Oh yeah, and once I stepped on a bee and got stung," he recalls nonchallantly. Workplace hazard, you know.
Aivaz, on the other hand, says the universe has been generous to her.
"I have not gotten ring worm like so many people have warned me, I haven't been cut by glass, I haven't stepped on a nail, I haven't been bit by a squirrel. It's because I have calluses. That's the secret."
Sporting nothing on their feet but calluses, Aivaz and Hershey are out to save the world and challenge the norm.
Although Aivaz prefaces that her "reasons for not wearing shoes are three-fold like Chandler's box" (comfort, awareness and hygiene), she admits to a fourth motive: motivation of the larger Duke population to be true to the self.
"The last reason is to inspire other Duke students to not be afraid to be themselves. And I think that's maybe what keeps me doing it because I get a lot of stares and people are kind of weirded out by me," she explains.
"Don't be afraid to be yourselves. Do what you want because I think that's the one thing that really holds Duke students back," she adds. "They're afraid to be themselves and to sway away from the collective even if they think something else. They conform to these bubbles. Maybe you know by me just kickin' it barefoot-kickin' it in my bare phalanges-they'll be inspired to do what they like."
With goose bumps on my arms I proceeded to remove my shoes.
It may still have been dirty, but it wasn't unnatural anymore.
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