Kevin O'Keefe owns nine pairs of shoes, but he hasn't worn any of them in more than seven months.
O'Keefe's calloused feet are black from the dirt they encounter while he goes to church, class, socials, parties and friends' houses barefoot.
He said he forgoes shoes to remind himself of his blessings.
"I have seen a lot of poverty within the city, country and all over the world, and I needed to do something to constantly remind me of the poverty all around me," he said.
When he took off his shoes and left them off, it was a sunny day and the pavement was hot from the sun.
"It was all fresh pavement, and at the end of the day my feet were tender," he said. "Now, by the end of the day they still hurt but I suck it up or walk faster. I've gotten used to it."
O'Keefe, a telecommunications sophomore, said no professors have asked about his lack of shoes.
"Its college. Professors see weird things every day," he said.
Not everyone is so impassive.
On the way to the bus stop one day, someone yelled from a car, "Wear some shoes, you fucking weirdo!"
But O'Keefe said he isn't discouraged.
"There are places in the world where people can't get shoes. People look at me and think I'm weird, but they don't see how common it is," he said. "I am secure, and I know why I'm doing this. It's sadder that [society sees me as weird.] What if I didn't have the money for shoes?"
O'Keefe has made a game of the times people do ask him about it.
"Every time someone asks me about my shoes I put $5 in a fund to sponsor a child through an organization called Compassion International," he said. "It's a combination of personal reminder not to forget how much God has blessed me but also to remember my friends who are homeless - a call to action."
Lauren Wilkins, a friend of O'Keefe's, said she admires his drive.
"It redirects me, makes me think of how blessed I really am," she said.
When O'Keefe encounters situations where shoes are not optional, he wears TOMS shoes, a company that gives a pair of new shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased.
"[Not wearing shoes has] served the purpose that I wanted it to, especially when they start hurting. With every step it reminds of how blessed I am and it keeps me in a mindset and reminds me that certain struggles aren't as bad as we think," he said.
O'Keefe said he plans to keep it up until he has gone through an entire year and experienced a shoeless winter.
"It keeps me grounded," he said with a chuckle, "get it?"
