How much money do you spend on shoes? For some people, buying new shoes is an annoying chore; an expensive purchase made when they have no choice. Other people love collecting shoes, and will spend half their paycheque on new ones every month. But very few people would ever willingly choose to forgo shoes altogether. We tend to associate shoelessness with poverty, or a lazy Sunday spent loafing about the house.
Yet a woman who hails from the state of Georgia has given up footwear for good, and what's more is that she claims that the decision to go permanently barefoot has improved her life tenfold. Kasandra Smith hasn't worn shoes for three years, claiming that having bare feet 24-7 has actually decreased the amount of stress she experiences in her life. Now Kasandra walks through mud and snow unshod, and says that she can even tread over sharp objects without them piercing her tough soles.
In a recent interview, Kasandra stated: "I can’t quite explain it but I feel so much more calm and confident without shoes. I’m a socially anxious person but, when I’m barefoot, I feel much more relaxed. People don’t always understand it, so I had little cards printed that explain why I do it, and that it’s perfectly legal. I hand them out to anyone who stops me to ask questions. I’ve even convinced a couple of people to ditch their shoes then and there ... I’ve only ever been told to leave a shop once. It was a home and hardware store and they told me they were worried about something falling on my feet."
"The most asked question is, ‘Where are your shoes?’ People aren’t that negative, they’re more just interested. I get asked a lot if I’ll get sick. I did in the beginning, but not anymore as my body has now got used to the different temperatures. I think it’s actually improved my immune system. Once, though, I was in the Dollar Store when this mum pulled her kid away from me and gave me a disgusted look. I don’t know what she thought I was going to do – I was shopping, just like her."
Kasandra even went unshod when she married her fiancé Don Smith in April of 2017, and now the two of them are planning on doing a 500 miles, where Kasandra will be barefoot most of the way. "Not only do I feel lighter and more spiritually grounded when I don’t wear shoes, but it makes my skin healthier and gets rid of the chance of athlete’s foot or something similar," she stated. "The only reason I can see myself wearing shoes again is if I found a job that required me to. But it would need to be a job I really loved to be worth it, and I’d speak to them first to see if there was a way around it. In my past jobs, working in a Halloween fancy dress shop and at a theme park, I’ve gone barefoot without a problem."
It might seem a little strange at first that Kasandra has given up shoes, but once you acknowledge that she isn't hurting herself, there really aren't a lot of sensible arguments prohibiting her. I guess that if it makes her happy she should be left to her own devices, but as for me? I think I'll keep mine on thanks all the same.
