I took the walk!

11:00am: I was casually sitting on the pavement, black coffee in hand, and was shoving hot croissants in my mouth when a taxi stopped right in front of me and Taylor stepped out. "Good morning", he said, "how are you?"... I chocked on what I was eating, didn't even bother standing up to be honest, and muffled something that sounded like "Good". Tay laughed and said, "Well, we'll see you guys in a bit". I nodded, tried to smile, thinking that this couldn't have been more embarassing. Oh well....

11:45am: 15minutes before the walk, Hanson still inside, us outside waiting and, there you have it... it starts to rain. No, it wasn't just small drops from the sky. I'm talking about proper rain, pouring down on us, thunders, lightining and all. FUCKIN' HELL!!! (as the brits would say!)

12:05am: Hanson finally came out of the building, Taylor looking ecstatic! "It's raining guys", he said raising his hands towards the sky. "Yeah, we know dude", was what I thought, "we're soaking wet!". I guess, since it was the first walk in London, it just had to rain to add to the whole scenario.

You didn't really had a good view to the guys as there were so many umbrellas blocking it. At least, I didn't! All I could hear was Taylor's voice, explaining everything about the cause and what we were set to do on that day. His excitement was beyond words!

12:10am: I had a serious debate with myself, for like a minute or so, on whether I should take my shoes off or not. After all, it was raining. POURING! Before I could debate on it any longer, Zac's right next to me, his hobbit feet leading the way. "Screw it", I said... "let's DO this!". And there you go... shoes were off and my feet were now touching the disgusting wet London ground.

12:15am: It was only the first shock. My feet felt cold for only a minute or two, then they just went numb. That, or I just stopped caring. My attention was on Zac and his stories about previous walks, and the meaning behind them. I had seen videos from other walks on the internet, had heard stories from other people, but being part of it just made me look at it through a different perspective and really brought it to a different level.

12:20am: We were going up and down, crossing bridges, running around London and people passing past us were looking at us with a mixture of disgust, wonder and amazement on their faces... but to be honest, that only made it more fun. How often do you see people running around barefoot in the pouring rain?? I bet we looked hilarious!

12:25am: Taylor made a stop somewhere under a bridge, so we could take a break from all the running-around-in-the-rain, and also, so he could take some more time to explain to us a bit more about the cause and what "take-the-walk" is all about. His speech was very inspiring, putting most of us into some serious thinking and we all ended up chanting in the end, "I took the walk! I took the walk!". Then we headed off to finish our walk to where it had started.

12:30am: ...or around that time. I wasn't really looking at the time anyway. I was soaking wet, couldn't feel my feet, feeling cold as hell, but still, I had a big, dorky smile all over my face as I shouted out, "I took the walk!" for the last time along with Hanson and the other hundreds of people. The walk was over and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. Not because of Hanson really. I mean, that was only one of the reasons! lol! But mostly because I got to see, at least for a small amount of time, how it must feel not having some of the essential stuff that most people have, like shoes. Yes, we donated at the end. I hope my money'll be well spent down in Africa. It's one step at a time. Bless the Hansons. They’re amazing!

- TAKE THE WALK: www.takethewalk.net -

A journey to awareness, to action, and to hope.