Lesson 19: If you’re going to use public showers, wear shower shoes

I am not saying this specifically for your benefit, although you are the one who has the most to gain from this practice.  Have you ever looked at the floor of a public bathroom?  Disgusting right?  Now take that mixture of all the nastiness coming from people’s lower half and add all the nastiness from the upper half too.  One word.  Gross.  You might be thinking, “well a lot of soap gets used in the shower and the flowing water all helps to keep the shower clean right?”  I am not a scientist, but the data from my eyes and experience tell me that is not very accurate.  Besides, shower shoes are cheap my friend.  Why take the chance when the preventive measure is budget friendly?  It is a small price to pay to protect one of your most important bodily assets.

Maybe you are embarrassed.  Do you think people will laugh at you?  Short of having shower shoes that have something funny printed on them, I have yet to encounter anyone that was made fun of for wearing them.  In military basic military training, they are a required item.  We took them everywhere with us.  It was not uncommon to see service members in uniform with shower shoes on.  Think any of us were embarrassed about it?  A grown male or female packing an M-4 rifle or an M-9 pistol, uniform, towel over their shoulder, and a nice pair of shower shoes to complete the image.  I assure you; no one was laughing.  Unless the person tripped and fell.  Let’s face it, shower shoes or not, when someone takes a tumble, it is usually funny.  Add shower shoes, the stresses of deployment, and hands full of bathroom items, laughing will ensue.

The most important reason I say this is for the sake of others.  Cleaning up after yourself is always the right thing to do.  Everyone likes working with or around people who take cleanliness seriously.  Especially when you are in environments, like the military, when there is not much separation between you and others.  There are a lot of people using the same facilities.  Ask yourself if you like being around the people that don’t take showers, wear deodorant, wash their hands before a meal, etc.  You probably think people like that are gross right?  Regardless of how “close” you are, you probably don’t want to get too close. 

Don’t be the stinky, smelly, disgusting person.  Protect others by protecting yourself.  Protect yourself by protecting others.  Most of cleanliness is about common sense.  By wearing shower shoes, you aren’t just keeping your feet clean and minimizing your contact with the unknown, you are also contributing to a better, cleaner, less toxic environment.  It is mental and physical.  People do things in showers.  Things I don’t need to specifically identify, but you know what I am talking about.  You really want to expose your skin to that?  The biggest problem with the unknown is it is unknown.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  All we know is that wearing shower shoes will protect you and others.  Do the right thing and be safe.

P.S. Don’t do gross stuff in public showers.  Rinse, wash, and get out.