<p>Criticize any way you want. I can take it. I’m strong inside.</p>
<pre><code>My feet once were clean and pure, soft and pink, cute and cuddly, but I gave up their beauty for dragon boating. Dry, cracked, dirty, and flip-flop-tanned those are my feet today. From far away one can already see a white stripe running across my feet below my toes. As one gets closer, one can see the grime in my toenails. And when you get within smelling distance, you see that the heels have dried up and crumbled, leaving a grayish look.
Along with time and gasoline, the cleanliness of my feet is a welcome sacrifice as I commit myself to the sport of dragon boating. Every Saturday afternoon, Im set with my T-shirt, shorts, and piece de resistance: my flip flops. The thongs of my black slippers can only protect that strip of skin; the rest is up for grabs for sun, dirt, or salt water.
My feet, already devastated by the previous practice, carry me down the dock to the dragon boat. They slowly enter the boat, carefully choosing where to place themselves so as not to risk capsizing the boat and sinking the rest of the crew into the water. Well secured to the floor, with one in front and the other underneath, my feet rest there underneath the gunnel.
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<p>These two sets of toes dont realize their own importance to the sport. They turn green with envy as they watch the hands get all the praise, the hands that get to grab the paddle, the hands that get to move in sync with other hands of other paddlers with their own green toes. Never seen by the public eye, my feet are hidden inside the boat, crying as they are attacked by the algae and salt from the splashing water. They agonize as they burn in the rays of the sun. At each stroke, my arms hang out over the gunnel and prepare to dig in the water, while my toes must shoulder all my body weight each time the legs shove the toes against the floor to propel the boat.
Every time the hands mess up, the murky water splashes and drips down my body, accumulating at my naked feet. The dirt and the algae find any crevice they can in between dry skin or toe nails, begriming and blackening their pinkness. They suffer as the water slowly steams away and the grime condenses. No one can even see them and they are mortified.</p>
<pre><code>At the end of practice I get out of the boat. I note my toenails are black, and wash them down with the hose. Its impossible to get all the muck inside my toenails, as well as my heels. I give up and hope this time that my hot shower and bar of soap at home can fix the problem. Adding insult to injury, not only have my feet been sullied, they have been branded again by the sun, accenting out a one inch strip across my feet. Just another mark of summer, I say. Plus, how often do people pay attention to feet anyways?
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