Un Dia En Mis Zapatos

One Mile in My Shoes
By: Marco Lopez

Seventeen years he has walked this Earth, one day at a time, one struggle at a time, he has come to now. Routine, to him this means not doing what he wants todo, it means having to live by something that was planned and predetermined. However, he likes to live his life in the now, not worrying about the long-term future. Of course, I talk about Marco andthis is how a day in his life is like. A day that seems to start the same as the next but that always has that singular “taste” to it, each day has it’s own beauty mark.

It’s 6:39 and Marco’salarm clock is about to wake him up, however he is quick to the draw and wakes up seconds before the alarm clock begins to ring. He doesn’t open his eyes until he hears the annoying ring, hitting thesnooze button the second it does. One eye opens, then the next one, and finally Marco is fully awake. He walks sleepily towards the bathroom thinking about the long day ahead of him, realizing that he hasto give it his best while he splashes water on his face. Three minutes, that’s all it takes him to be fully dressed and ready to go to the kitchen and cook breakfast for himself. He eats while hereads the sports news, occasionally reading the artistic news if he has enough time, and that’s when his mom shouts the time left before they leave for the first time.

He puts his glass and his plateon the sink and rushes up the stairs, two steps at a time. He rinses his toothbrush, smears minty toothpaste over the strands, and shoves it into his mouth doing and up-and-down movement. He thenproceeds to wet his hair, not too wet but not too dry, just right. He is ready to style it. By 7:15 he is ready to leave, unless of course he can’t find his cell phone or his wallet which will probablytake him more than five minutes to find.

After a three-minute drive, he enters the only place where the routine is imposed, school. I feel the need to skip this part for lack of interest by the...