THE DAY DREAMER'S JOURNAL: THE "IMELDA" IN ME

I was not born well heeled. In fact, I came from an underprivileged family. My father is a laborer while my mother is an embroiderer, I am the eldest, I have a sister who is 3 years younger than me.

Combining both my parents’ wages, our family could only afford to pay for our daily meal and nothing more back in the day. Having a very limited income made me & my sister to have very limited stuffs like clothes, toys, shoes etc. I could still remember how my mother will gather all the scrapped fabric from her work so she could sew for us some casual dresses as we can’t afford to buy a ready-made. Our shoes were mostly used ones, those that were “donated” from my cousins & neighbors.

I was an ordinary kid. I grew up with some friends from the neighborhood and classmates at school. I love to play and hang out with them. School programs, birthday parties, social gatherings, various events & activities etc… that’s what I love the most when I was still a child, it excite me! I love to check out what others are wearing whenever there’s activity at school or if there’s any celebration. I am an extrovert.

I have this huge fascination for shoes. I don’t know why but my eyes “gleams” the most on any pair of new shoes, especially flat ones designed with simplicity & elegance.

I love Cinderella and her glass shoe that shines like crystals, it inspired me knowing that the essence of her story is about a girl who finds her way from rags to riches.

I love Mrs. Marcos and her more than a hundred pair of shoes. I love her grandiosity & charm; I love her as a woman. Although I despise the possibility that she spent the money of the Filipinos for her lavish lifestyle.

My father & mother were my best mentors & advice givers. They were the best for making me understand that though glamour may be impossible for me back then because of our financial condition, there will come a day when all the shoes I want can be easily mine through perseverance and hard work. Infact, I am always told that anything I want in life can be mine if I work for it with determination and unfailing faith. That’s when I told myself that when I grow up, I will buy every shoe that I can afford to buy!

I went to high school & managed to graduate college using the same & only pair of shoes I have and that same shoes I wore the first time I landed myself a job. On my first pay day, I scored myself with a black ballerina flats from Parisian Junior. I can’t contain myself with happiness! From that day that I have my own source of income, I pampered myself with every pair of shoes that I can afford to buy.

Today, I have 42 pairs (to be exact) of shoes (in different average brands, nothing extravagant), Please don’t misconstrue that I am bragging about it, that’s not what I intend to do. It just came to me & was reminded that I was once a child with a “little Imelda” in my heart for being so awestruck with shoes… but was unlucky & deprived to own enough pairs of it.

And unlike with other’s denunciation to the former First Lady (on how she acquired her luxurious shoe collection) I worked doggedly to pay for every cent of the shoes I own. :)