Why walking is not a trend at all

There it is, in the newspaper: “German youth are walking en masse, walking is the new trend among the youth.” The Dutch crowd seems to be increasingly caught up in walking as well, because that’s how you live such a nice offline existence. We also call it hiking. Lacing up shoes to the top, zipping up a windbreaker, putting on cargo pants and hitting the trails, the avenues, that sort of thing. It seems to be the way to clear your head.

Rewind, people, re-re-re-wind. Walking is a trend? A stroll, as my grandfather calls it, has existed since time immemorial. Humans have been walking around since before and after Christ. Sure, with a purpose in the form of a water well or to move livestock, but now it’s suddenly hip? The walking shoe industry can no longer keep up with the demand for fashionably acceptable walking shoes, because get up and walk everyone. I actually understand that last part, because I’ve never understood why a walking shoe also has to be ugly.

By the way, my mother-in-law has been walking for years, that’s a regular thing for her on Friday mornings. Our sixty-five plus neighbor walks up and down the hill during her vacation, I estimate she’s been doing this since she took her first steps. And I see the colleagues at the end of the street (even in the rain) scouring our busy industrial area around lunchtime. On foot, yes.

Walking is not a trend, guys, walking is normal. Humans walk. For centuries. That we millennials have forgotten what it’s like to take a good walk doesn’t mean that a stroll is ‘back’. But that we finally get off our Netflixing behinds to get some fresh air. By the way, you apparently get a great body from it, which is a nice bonus.