No. 001 — Featured Story
The Quiet Mile
Temeka Hayes
My name is Temeka Hayes.
I grew up in rural Georgia.
We didn't have much, but what we did have was determination.
I was raised believing that if you wanted something, you worked for it.
Those lessons never left me.
I became the first in my family to earn advanced degrees—graduating from Seton Hall University and later earning a master's degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Along the way I became a live-in nanny, worked countless jobs, and eventually spent more than twenty years building a career in corporate America.
I've worked in finance. Marketing. Technology. Project management. Banking.
There were promotions. Layoffs. Successes. Failures. Moments when I questioned everything.
Today, I'm single. I don't have children. But I do have a house full of rescue dogs—more than ten lives that depend on me every single day.
People sometimes ask why I keep these old shoes.
Because these shoes know things.
They know the miles I walked when I couldn't afford new ones.
They know the interviews. The airports. The parking lots. The days I thought I'd never make it.
They were there when I was building a future that no one else could see.
I retired these sneakers in 2025. Not because they were worn out. Because they had already carried me farther than anyone ever expected.
Every scratch tells a story. Every hole represents another obstacle. Every mile reminds me that success isn't about where you start. It's about refusing to stop walking.
These are my Raggedy Sneakers.
What's your story?