Everyday people wake up and take for granted numerous things in their lives, even minor things that nobody ever really thinks about. One of these things is a pair of shoes. How often do you really think about how grateful you are for your shoes? We groan over our selection of a dozen, maybe two-dozen shoes and eventually throw on a pair without thinking. We have summer shoes, winter shoes, work shoes, running shoes, a shoe for every occasion. But what if we weren’t fortunate to own any shoes? Or the one pair we managed to get was three sizes too small? Now would we still take for granted this commodity? Would we still complain that our brown shoes don’t match our brown pants?

During our eye-opening experience in Jamaica we got the honor to work with an amazing company called Soles4Souls, a non-profit group that helped provide a basic necessity to a number of children through Great Shape! Inc. Soles4Souls donated over a hundred brand new shoes to the students in the schools we were working at. They had a vast range of sizes to accommodate different students in all the grades. One of the days I had the opportunity to help with the fitting and distribution of the shoes at my school. The distribution was done in the library, an extremely small, hot and humid room. There were two cardboard boxes in the middle of the room overflowing with new shoes, but even this abundance of shoes wasn’t enough for all the students. There weren’t even enough shoes for those who desperately needed them. To make the decision fair, the principal choose four to five students in each grade, who had the highest need for shoes, to come and get new shoes.

The first wave of students to enter the already cramped room were those in grade one. Each student would make their way in and then quietly wait their turn to receive new shoes. A majority of the students had no socks, and had shoes that were at least two sizes too small. There was one particular first grader that struggled to find a pair of shoes to fit. Timarley had clearly been in some sort of accident as a young child, causing him to lose his toes and some of his fingers on his right side. Because of this one foot was larger than the other, making it hard to find a pair of shoes that would benefit him. We worked diligently to find a pair of shoes, and even with the long wait, Timarley sat patiently without a single complaint. After trying on a number of shoes, we finally found the perfect size for him. We finally got the shoes on and one of the other volunteers let Timarley have the honor of cutting the band that held the two shoes together. Timarley was glowing, his smiled stretched across his face reaching ear to ear, and he immediately looked up at me with this smile and lifted his feet for me to see. This was a moment I would never forget.

After all the shoes had been distributed to the students, I felt overjoyed. The type of feeling you only hope to feel at some point in your life. I saw delight in the students’ faces as they walked away with either a new pair of shoes on or in a bag. The students that had them on were able to discard their worn down shoes and replace them with comfortable, fitting shoes. But as I walked away from the library with the warmness in my heart from the smiles of the children, it quickly turned to sadness as I walked back into the classrooms. The students who were not chosen to receive new shoes asked if they got new shoes, if they were next. As I heard the questions from the other students I looked down at their shoes. Some of the students had shoes just as damaged as the other students. Some had shoes that were so tight, I could see their toes curled and scrunched at the front of their shoe, I could only imagine the pain it caused. Seeing this broke my heart, I couldn’t help but think about the students that did not get a new pair and had to walk home in shoes that were hurting them. The principal expressed the same disappointment and wished she could have provided every student with new shoes. As I sat in the class and paid more attention to the students’ feet, I noticed that a majority of the students were not even wearing their shoes in the class. The only pair of shoes these kids owned, hurt so bad, that they took them off everyday when they were in class. This was a realization that I couldn’t even fathom.

There are no words to explain my trip to Jamaica. Nothing I could say that could fully exemplify all the emotions I felt throughout the experience. But on this one-day the other volunteers and I experienced such a wide range of emotions, it was hard to deal with. We experienced joy in helping some students receive new shoes, but sorrow realizing that other students would still have to suffer day after day in the shoes that don’t fit them. I am thankful for this opportunity, for the chance to widen my experiences and hope that one day everyone gets the chance to open their eyes to such a life changing opportunity.