Pre-adult heels: mine are the Mary Janes.

Up until two weeks ago, I had only one pair of heels. I got them in eighth grade and–because I haven’t grown in the last six years–they still fit. I wore them to prom. I wore them to senior ball. I wore them to Sweet Sixteens and semi-formals, speech and debate banquets and dinners with my grandparents. Any occasion that I had to be stuck in a dress? I put those shoes on, mostly because I had no other options. You would think, with all the wear I got out of them, that I would like them. But I didn’t. They were just okay. And they weren’t that comfortable. Phooey.

So began my year-long mission to find adult heels that–gasp!–I actually liked. I searched high and low for shoes that fit my three requirements: versatile, relatively inexpensive, and actually cute. An easy task? Not quite.

Obviously not in my budget…

Then I saw them–Simply Vera Vera Wang for Kohl’s shoes, looking like the low-end answer to those Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony buckle boots that everyone coveted back in 2009. But in the mess of some Power Hour event, I could only find one shoe, so there was no way I could purchase them. Thwarted!

Upon later obsessive Kohls.com searching, I discovered that they were the Rath Platform Wedges, but, horrors upon horrors, at $74.99 they were way out of my price range. Still, I checked back on the price status of “my shoes” over the next six months.

You can still get them for $34.97 on the Kohl’s website. (I swear, they look cuter in person!)

When they were finally marked down to $34.97, I knew that they would be mine. Since my lovely mother had a coupon, I got 20% off of my purchase, making the total price only about $28. This is more than I typically pay for shoes, but these were the shoe love of my life (so far), and I felt the price was justified!

I love that I can feel so freaking tall without constantly tottering about. These shoes are legitimately so comfortable and sturdy that I even walked up an unpaved hill to an observatory in them because they are just that AWESOME. And I think that waiting before buying them–that long six month process of obsessively checking Kohls.com to see if I could ever justify having them in my possession–made them all the more worth it.

Do you think waiting a long time before purchasing an item makes the purchase more satisfying?

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