The Littlest Rebel

I am a flip flop person through and through. I own numerous pairs and my two most frequently worn "work shoes" are in fact, fancified flip flops. My standard black, casual flip flops have finally reached the trashing point so last week I purchased new black flip flops. And, after much deliberation, I purchased black Rainbow sandals. That doesn't seem like a very big deal, but trust me, it was.

I have been having an internal battle with whether or not to purchase Rainbows for some time. At least 3 years. The history of my affection for Rainbows started roughly 15 years ago when I saw numerous hunky hunky surfers at the beach wearing them. But, at the young age of 12, I did not have the money to purchase $40 flip flops. As time went on, I left for Idaho for college and came back to NC four years later to realize the actual current trends, since we all know ID is not exactly at the cusp of fashion, and saw that EVERYONE, including children that could barely walk, were wearing the coveted Rainbows.

At this point, I began to hate Rainbows. They had changed from beachy cool surfer dude shoes to "mommy I have to have them because everyone else does, including you" shoes. To me, they represented everything I hated about conformity, or more appropriately, expensive conformity. This distaste for label-driven, overpriced fashion was probably rooted in me around middle school when I became acutely aware of everything I wore and possessed down to what brand of backpack I used and therefore felt I was being ruthlessly judged as such. And since we really are all seventh graders deep inside, the current Rainbows fad has become the Abercrombie and Fitch from high school or the Converse shoes from middle school. As I matured, I realized one of the reasons I hated these trends so much was because secretly, I liked them, but was too proud to admit that I was just like everyone else so I rebelled.

Up until last week, this rebellion toward the Rainbows continued. I realized that openly refusing to buy them solely on the basis that they were a fad was just as bad as buying them because they were a fad. Does that make any sense? I couldn't win, so therefore I figured I do need new black flip flops, I would like a pair that will last a while, I am a collector of flip flops, the Rainbow company is by no means taking a personal offense to my rebellion, and I can still maintain some of my rebellion by getting black instead of the standard brown.

So there you have it. I rescinded my rebellion. As I'm sure my mother already assumes, I still maintain other little rebellions. The one that I hold to firmly and probably will for some time is the iPhone. And maybe Macs in general. I haven't totally decided on that one yet. I like the product just fine but there are definitely "Mac people". I think they make you join a secret club and have secret handshakes once you buy a Mac. But alas, I digress and should save the Mac people judgments for another time.*

My question to my readers, is what rebellions do you have? They can be big or small, trivial, purposeful, or, like mine, affect no one but yourself. I think the overall objective of a rebellion, whatever it may be, is it gives us a sense of individual passions. Even if no one else in the world knows of said passion, we know that there are pieces of us that make us different and that in itself is empowering. I may have sacrificed a piece of my individuality by buying Rainbows but I think that 15 years is long enough to deprive myself of really cool flip flops.


*Mother, I formed these opinions before you purchased a Mac. These comments are not directed at you.