Some people are born knowing exactly who they are. Others spend their entire lives searching, but not succeeding. Then there are those few that, although they are born not knowing who they are, find out during the course of their lives. This is the story of two of them.

These particular two were born at the exact same time on April 6th, 1977. Some knew them as twins, but more frequently they were called a pair. They were rarely found apart and were always striving to help each other. They were, as many are, born extremely small. They did eventually grow, but to their dismay not to a great extent.

While growing up, the two lived in Southern California, in a city called Palmdale. Throughout their childhood they often felt neglected and unloved. Sometimes it seemed as if no one knew of their existence. They got through these times with the help of each other, but at times they wished they had more friends. Although there were some hard times, they still enjoyed their youth. They participated in many activities together. They especially enjoyed running and going to the beach. While at the beach the two felt free and, although they would always be considered a pair, more like an individual than they ever felt when they were at home. To them, the best part of the beach was the warm sand and cool, refreshing ocean water.

Overall, the pair grew up extremely happy. Though, during their late teens, they started struggling with self-realization. They had a loving, caring family and everything that they could have ever wanted, but for some reason they still felt in some way incomplete. It took them a while to figure out what was wrong, but then one day they realized that they had no idea who they were. They had no names, to their knowledge, and had no idea what their purpose in life was. It was at that point that they decided to find out who and why they were.

Now, trying to find yourself is very difficult when you have no idea where to begin. Nevertheless, the pair took on the challenge and began deciding where to start their search. After a bit of consideration, they decided that it might be best to figure out what they already knew, before they proceeded to find out what they didn’t know. So, they got a notebook and wrote down everything they knew about themselves. The list thus far looked like this:

Who Am I?

Date of Birth – April 6, 1977

Family – 4 Parents, 4 Siblings

Enjoys – Running and going to the beach,

After writing that list down, the pair realized that they knew barely anything about themselves. They also decided that they should seek themselves somewhere other than Palmdale, or anywhere in California, since staying there hadn’t helped them in the past.

After much consideration, the pair decided that North Carolina would be the best place to start. They chose to attend Guildford College, in the city of Greensboro. At first, this was okay, but then the pair realized that attending Guildford wasn’t really helping them at all in their journey. Nevertheless, they were sure that this town called Greensboro held at least some of the answers. So, they relocated to another college there, called Bennett College. They hoped that it would perhaps help if they were surrounded completely by their same gender.

Although college did not help them completely identify themselves, it did help. After this experience, the pair was able to add yet another thing to their list:

When college ended, the pair decided that perhaps they shouldn’t stay in Greensboro, but instead, travel abroad. So, once again, after considering the options, they decided that Prague, Czech Republic would be their next destination. Once there, they acquired a job teaching English. This was quite enjoyable, but they found it didn’t really help them in their search to find themselves. So after a year, they decided to move again.

They decided to do a bit of traveling before leaving Europe though. They visited many different countries, including: Germany, England, and Scotland. After their traveling ceased, they had to decide where to go to next.

While still in their decision process, the pair thought about giving up and just returning home to California a failure, but then they realized that perhaps they were right with their first choice – Greensboro. So, they got on a plane and returned to Greensboro.

When they arrived, they acquired an apartment and set off to find a job. They soon found one at a private school, teaching second grade. Over the next few years they continued working at this school, though kept changing positions. Although they began by teaching second grade, they moved on and also taught 6th grade, and various grades English/Literature and Latin classes.

During their third year at the school, they were teaching various Upper School Literature classes, including one teaching eighth grade. In this particular eighth grade class there were two students that insisted on continuously asking them questions. At first this was extremely bothersome for the teachers. However, to keep the students content, they answered all the questions every time, honestly. When the ninth sheet of questions appeared on their desk, the teachers became extremely infuriated and were about to go yell at the students for asking so many questions, when they looked down and suddenly realized something. These had seemed like pointless little questions all along, but in fact they weren’t. As the pair read the next question they suddenly knew who they were. The question may have seemed like a small, irrelevant question at first, but to then they realized that it in fact held the answer.

To many the question would mean nothing, since it was simply – What is your favorite type of shoe? Although, when the two answered that question – no shoes at all – they suddenly realized who, or possibly more appropriately what, they were.

They were feet! They weren’t in fact the ones that lived in Palmdale, or that attended college, or even chose to come back to North Carolina after visiting Europe. Instead it was that to whom they belonged – Echo Grey. Suddenly it all made sense. The reason they had enjoyed the beach so much and why they hadn’t had any friends. Also, why they had four instead of two parents. It all made sense.

They also found their purpose in life – to carry along and support their owner, Echo. Even though occasionally she may choose to wear extremely uncomfortable, nevertheless very stylish, boots or go for awfully long runs, she was still their owner and their job was to support her.

So, after their long search, the pair found what they were looking for. Their identity was discovered. They were also able to add many more items to their list of what they knew about themselves, including what they enjoyed the most: Just being bare feet.