Buddhists say that we shouldn’t be too attached to our material possessions, and to a certain extent I agree. However, there are certain dresses, pieces of jewelry or other accessories that we don’t merely love; there is a memory associated with them that comes back each time we look at or wear the item in question. Jewelry is the most obvious of these—we have wedding rings, pieces inherited from loved ones or given as gifts to commemorate extra special occasions.

For me, my favourite piece of jewelry is a charm bracelet I bought last spring in Amsterdam (a little jaunt I took after my first ever business trip) while wandering around the city on my first solo vacation. It’s vintage, from the 1920s as I was told by the shop owner, and has large dark golden links (for the price I paid for it, I’m pretty sure it’s not real gold). Flowers are carved into marble-sized chunks of semiprecious stones in a variety of colors and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Sure, I love this bracelet for its unique qualities, but even more than that this bracelet reminds me of the first vacation I paid for myself since graduating from college. I booked my ticket, accommodations, made plans, and explored a foreign city entirely on my own—it’s a symbol of my independence and adulthood. So, how about you? What is your most prized piece of jewelry, clothing etc, and what’s the story behind it?

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