A sit across from a guy at work who for the last month has reminded me of someone. I couldn't put my finger on it but there was something very familiar about him, not really the way he looks or anything but just...the essence of the person.
Then the other day we were called out for a meeting of some sort. I was walking behind him when it suddenly hit me. He walked exactly the same way as one of my ex-boyfriends, a very distinct, straighback gait. Suddenly it was like I was back in High School and we were making our way to class.
Funny how something we take for granted, such as the way someone walks, can be so individual and unique.
I know I have a very distinctive walk, though there's not much I can do about it. Apparently I have tight or shortened hamstrings, or whatever muscle runs down the back of your legs and I have "loose" hips. Both of these are a result of having been born with a foot condition that required me to spend the first six years of my life in thigh-high casts on my both of my legs. In the end, my muscles didn't develop as they should have. My thigh muscles are very strong and my calves are weak and non-existent (which is good cuz I can fit into tight boots and bad if I want to wear a mini-skirt...so I don't go there).
My walk has changed some over the years, as I try and keep my back and legs more straight, but it the end, I walk the way I walk and I'm too preoccupied or lazy to do a thing about it. I've been told that maybe I should go to physio if it really bothers me, but to tell you the truth, a lot of the things that used to bother me, don't so much anymore. Maybe, along with the quick passing of time, self-acceptance goes part and parcel with getting older.
However, I think my walk does cause other people to recognize me more readily. I ran into my old best friend from Bowen Island at work the other day. I hadn't seen her in 11 years and yet she recognized me just the other day, as I was walking past. Sure, maybe I haven't changed too much from age 13 but I'm thinking she probably saw me stroll by and my gait rang a bell in her head.
I'm not sure if this is good or bad. It has made me more self-conscious, but so do most things in my life. But as in the past (as in over 5 years ago) I would get paranoid and neurotic about going out in public, now I realize that, whatever, it's who I am and so far it hasn't had any negative impact in my life.
As Christina Aguilera says: "Hold your head high and sway your hips when you walk!"
Done and done.
