Awesome English

Shine Your Shoes Like A Soldier

Reference: The art of manliness

There I was, staring down at my lackluster boots with a sinking feeling in my stomach. It was day two of basic training and we had just been informed that we had one hour to get our boots as shiny as our cadre’s (each looked as if they were covered in glass)…or we weren’t going to like the repercussions. Never in my life had I shined a pair of shoes and now I was under the gun, trying to inconspicuously imitate my roommate who grew up a military brat and had apparently been doing it since he was 5. I learned very quickly how to shine shoes that day…not quickly enough, but that’s another story for another time.

Chances are, unless you join the military, you will never have to face punishment for not having shiny shoes. Nonetheless, it is a great skill to have in your man arsenal. Whether it’s an upcoming wedding, graduation or simply another day at the office, a pair of shiny shoes can set you apart as a man that knows how to take care of himself.

Not only does shining your shoes look good, it is a necessary part of properly caring for and maintaining a nice pair of leather shoes or boots. The polish itself helps moisturize and waterproof the leather, lengthening a shoes lifespan.

How To Shine Your Shoes Like a Soldier

There are a lot of opinions when it comes to the best way to shine a shoe. Everyone has their own unique twist from using spit to using a lighter to burn the top coat of polish (cool, although potentially dangerous). The process below is a simple one that I have used for many years and it has worked fine for me and many of my military peers.

Step 1: Find an old towel or newspaper to spread over the area you will be working on. Shoe polish has an uncanny ability to get smeared everywhere even when you’re being extremely careful…and it’s really hard to get out of carpet.

Step 2: Clean the dust and dirt off your boots with a horsehair shine brush or damp rag. If you must get your boots a little wet to clean them off, allow them time to dry before applying the polish.

Step 3: Cover the entire shoe with a generous amount of polish, using your shoe polish brush. The polish I’m using is black Kiwi Shoe Polish, but be sure to match the color of the polish to your shoe as closely as possible. Make sure you get down in the seams of the shoe and attempt to cover evenly with polish. Allow 15 minutes for the polish to dry.

Step 4: Brush the entire shoe vigorously using the horsehair shine brush. The point of this is to basically brush off all the excess polish, leaving only a small film on the outside of the shoe.

Step 5: Once you feel comfortable that the entire shoe has been covered and brushed it is time to focus on the toe and heel for extra shine. Dip a cotton ball or pad into some water and squeeze out any excess moisture so it is damp, not dripping. Then get a little polish on the damp cotton. Next apply the polish on the toe and heel of the shoe using small circular motions. Sit back, this is going to take a while.

Step 6: Repeat Step 5 until you are satisfied with the level of shine. Remember to use a new piece of cotton each time and to remove all excess polish before applying a new coating. Also, the initial shine is the hardest, it should get a bit easier each time you do it. These boots were fairly new and this was my first time giving them a good shine. From start to finish, it took me approximately 45 minutes to get them to the state shown below. Most of this was spent with the cotton pads shining the toe and heel. If I were to come back in a couple weeks it would take me half the time to do the same job.

Building a Shoe Shine Kit:

Before you try to build one, if you have black shoes you can always just buy the one sold on military bases worldwide…and the one I use. It is basic, cheap and has worked for me for 6 years. Here is the link. If, however, you want a nicer kit, different colors of polish, or just like being independent, here are the items you need:

tin of wax polish

horsehair shine brush

shoe polish brush (applicator)

cotton balls

shine cloth

Extra Thoughts:

For those of you who are really hardcore, you can clean up the edges of the sole by purchasing edge dressing. It’s basically black goop that goes around the edge of the sole and makes it look shiny. I’m not a fan of it, but you may feel the urge at some point.

Hindsight is 20/20

Reference: https://www.phrasemix.com

This is a saying which means that "It's easy to know the right thing to do after something has happened, but it's hard to predict the future."

Let me explain why this phrase has that meaning. First, "hindsight" means "thinking about things after they've happened". You can use it like this:

In hindsight, I realize that she was probably right.

This means that you didn't think she was right in the past, but now that you think back on it you realize that she was right.

"20/20" means "perfect vision". Eye doctors measure people's vision using two numbers. If the first number is low, your vision is good. If it's high, you aren't able to see well. I have 200/20 vision, so I really need to wear my glasses. But 20/20 is the lowest score and means that you're able to see perfectly. "20/20" is pronounced "twenty twenty".

So when you put those together, "Hindsight is 20/20" means that you can easily tell what you should have done in the past, but it's harder to decide what to do in the future.

When people use this phrase, they usually want to express one of these ideas:

• You shouldn't worry about your past decisions, because you can't change them now.
• Don't criticize what I did, because I made the best decision I could at that time.

Japanese school 'forces girl to dye hair black'

Reference: Breaking News English

An 18-year-old student is suing her local government after her school told her to dye her hair black. The third-year student attended a high school east of Osaka, Japan. She had naturally brown hair, but her school told her many times to dye it black to follow the school's rules. The Mainichi newspaper reported that the school staff told the girl to dye her hair every one to two weeks. This changed to once every four days. The girl's mother said her daughter got a rash on her head and that her hair was damaged. The girl also suffered from a lot of stress at school. The student is suing for $20,000 in damages. She told the court that the school bullied her for three years and that the school would not accept her hair color was natural. She was banned from school trips and festivals because of her brown hair. She explained that teachers said things to her in front of the class that embarrassed her. This caused a psychological damage. She said that a teacher told her that she should not come to school with brown hair. The girl said that she was so stressed one day that she collapsed. She had to go to hospital by ambulance.