Making room for the nursery, so the shoes gotta go!

Once my wife and I announced to the world that Baby Taye was indeed “coming to a crib near you” we started our first major project……the nursery! dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn

The spare room in our three-bedroom house had evolved into our “just put it in the spare room” room. I’ve dubbed it The Spare. We had always envisioned the spare to be a dignified office or a fun loving play room, but in reality it was the room that had the most random items in it. You would find our fish tank, my Jordan collection, an ironing board, wedding decorations from a year ago, toys for when we baby sat our friend’s kids, a fake dog that looked eerily real, and did I mention my Jordans…

During my days of being single I’ll admit that my financial decision didn’t always have the future in mind. When I would come into some extra cash I would dig through my contacts list to see who I knew that still worked at Nike to score an employee-store pass, or as local PDX sneaker heads call it an “NES pass.” Did I really need the Air Jordan Retro 1’s in 3 different colors? No, but they sure did look good on my feet! I roughly had about 40-50 pair of shoes that took up most of the space in the spare. This did not include the roughly 30-40 pair of shoes in the attic that I don’t wear anymore, but continue to procrastinate on donating.

Since meeting my wonderful, beautiful, smart, caring, loving, and understanding wife (she will most likely read this post), my priorities have changed and I have tamed my addiction for kicks. Sure, on my birthday I got a new pair of J’s (ok can’t lie, got 2 new pair of identical Jordans in different colors) but hey, it was my birthday. Now that I am older, I’m embarrassed by the amount of shoes I have. I’ve seen poverty home and around the world, and fell absurdly glutinous. Some have never been worn, and some I have multiple colors in. So the Jordans are getting evicted and now it’s time to restore and build the spare into the nursery my wife have always dreamed of.

I went to Home Depot, about the 3rd time that week, and bought 5 large plastic tubs to put my shoes in and store in the garage, basically to bury them with a shoe funeral. If shoes can cry, they would. During this burial ceremony I thought I would be sad, but I was excited! Little did my wife know or realize, or me for that fact, that I was EXCITED to get rid of those shoes to make way for the best and most precious thing life has given me yet, a baby!

Packing up those shoes was a pseudo passing of the fatherly torch, the first step into getting my mind and choices into thinking completely and 100% for someone else. I don’t care if I ever buy another pair of Jordans again, if it meant that our baby gets the best start at life he or she can. I know this step sounds like a no brainer for people, but to actually go through it is a pretty amazing chapter of life to experience. Every day I think of what we can do to get ready for the baby, but for now its bye bye Jordans, and hello Baby Taye!

(On a side note, the nursery is coming along great and we couldn’t be more happier about it. Check back soon to see the before & after pics, and “fun” stories of our experience)