Every place you may go has it's own culture of style. Boston is preppy, Seattle is grunge and St. Augustine is beachy. The beach-vibe St. Augustine has means that things a little more relaxed and casual. When walking around Flagler College's campus, one of the first things you may notice about the students is that many of them are not wearing shoes. Some find this strange, but when it comes to living in St. Augustine shoes aren't always the best option.

On the days I wake up late in the morning, I'm in a rush to get ready and get out the door. And of course, this is when the right shoe of every pair of shoes I own decides to go missing. So instead of freaking out trying to find a matching pair of shoes, I just leave the house with no shoes. Normally, that would be peculiar, but in St. Augustine it's completely fine. Not having to worry about wearing shoes if you can't find any is such a stress reliever.

Having a campus that is so close to the beach, students are constantly coming and going in between classes. After a long day at the beach, the last thing anyone wants to do is put on shoes. Being out in the sun all day take a lot of energy out of you. So much so that even putting on your shoes doesn't seem important enough to do. And let's not forget about the sand. Once sand gets in your shoes it will be there until you graduate from Flagler, maybe even longer. The foolproof plan to keep sand out of shoes is to not even put them on.

St. Augustine is the oldest city the America. With all of that history, comes some problems. For instance, any time it rains in St. Augustine all the streets flood to about mid-calf levels. When the flooding gets to that point, rain boots can't even help you. Dealing with wet shoes all day is horrible and getting them dry afterward is even worse. The best bet is walking around barefoot. It's a lot easier to dry off your skin in a few minutes than it is your Converse and socks. It may seem a little odd, but you'll thank yourself later.

Being from up North, it seemed strange that people were so comfortable walking around campus with no shoes on. Now, over a year later, it's so common that I hardly even notice anymore. Sometimes the most noticeable fashion is no fashion at all.