What do you think defines you as a person? . Last year these boots finally met their end. After a decade of wear, the soles were developing holes, the zippers broke, they were generally falling apart. I wore these boots on my first day of college at 16 years old. I wore these boots to my engagement party. I wore them in dusty New Mexico parking lots and on muddy Oregon trails and on gravel roads in Wyoming. Slipping them on was like slipping on my confidence. When I realized I had to toss them, I felt I was tossing away a part of myself. Why? They’re just shoes. Just cheap shoes I bought online with my first debit card. I think it’s because, over the years, I let the items I wore, the objects I carried around in boxes and bags, define me. I became worn in boots and tangled necklaces I don’t actually wear and art that has hung on walls in six different states. These were the things people would see when they saw me, thus these were me. And the pictures of my many adventures are me. As are the useless stories I have to tell about bears and wildfires in Montana. Funny that I wake up most days believing I care nothing for the opinions of others, yet here I am shaping so much of my world around perceptions that are not my own. What do you think defines you as a person? Some days I think it’s my words, my craft. Some days, I think it’s you who defines me. I don’t know how to feel about that. #definitionoftheself https://www.instagram.com/p/B8KBBTggSdy/?igshid=13adl8q2h5nyg