The Angel Charm
It must be hard for parents to think of what to buy their children for every birthday. My parents came up with this idea of buying me nice jewelry investment pieces to collect as I grew up.
Unfortunately, to my dismay many of them have disappeared throughout the years mainly because my way of storing jewelry was to keep them in a drawer that was scattered with pens and childhood toys. However, there was one particular piece that fortunately for me did not get lost throughout the years. It was the very first necklace my parents gifted to me. A charm that was in the shape of an angel with moveable arms and legs that went up and down, with a halo constructed of small diamonds. I wore it for an A-Level exam for good luck. After passing it, it became my lucky charm that I wore for every important event, like job interviews. As I write this, I pulled out my lucky charm and tried to put it on for old-times’ sake I realize that this once baby necklace has become a choker. I think it’s time for my angel charm to live on a newer and longer chain!

The Teddy Bear Set
My mom was a fashion buyer and was constantly travelling around the world. When I was growing up she almost always missed my birthday because of fashion week or shoe shows in Europe. But, to compensate she would always buy me really nice gifts! Florence, Italy was one of the places my mom frequented in her travels. She always shared stories with me about how beautiful Florence was, and often talked about a certain bridge that was flooded with artisanal jewelry shops. Throughout my mom’s travels to Florence, I always felt like I was there with her as she purchased several birthday gifts for me from that magical bridge with all the beautiful jewels! Starting off with teddy bear shaped earrings, then a bracelet for another, and a necklace for another birthday; this teddy bear collection started to grow in size and in sentimental value for me. The whole set can be seen in my old passport photo. I thought that it would be fitting to wear these pieces for a photo that would take me places! But as I grew into my adolescents, I decided that teddy bears were not cool enough for my new teenage life and retired them. I have lost all except for the bracelet, which I intend to keep safely as it reminds me of my first moments of falling in love with jewelry at the tender age of ten.

The Silver Bangle
Like every other teenager, I went through my angsty, rebellious stage in middle school. One birthday, my mom picked a Georg Jensen necklace for me, the necklace was silver with a charm of grapes. I think the grapes were representative to the brand, but I didn’t like it so I told my mom that I wanted to exchange it to something else. So, she took me back to the shop and allowed me to exchange it to something I liked, which turned out to be a simple silver bangle. Now that I am older when I reminisce about that time in my life, I feel regretful that I wasn’t more appreciative to my mother for her gift and what it represented. I wish that I had taken the time to consider my mother’s thought, time and overall feelings that she put into choosing this gift. Now, when I wear the bangle I get reminded of how terrible I was, but at the same time this bangle reminds me that I should never take anyone or anything for granted and to always show appreciation before it’s too late.

The 1 Carat Diamond Necklace
This was one of the last birthday gifts my parents gifted to me. It was for my 21st birthday which coincided with my university graduation. I remember my parents telling me that I was officially a grown-up now, so this would be my last birthday gift from them. Although I was saddened by this comment, the 1 carat diamond definitely helped soften the blow! Now when I look at this diamond necklace, I get reminded of the time I fully understood the commonly known phrase “Diamonds are a girls best friend.”

The Mimi Oui Ring
I was 26 years old working as a buyer at Christian Dior. Going on my 5th year of working and being a grownup, I saved up some money to treat myself on my birthday. I thought maybe purchasing my first real classic jeweled piece would symbolize me being a grown up, and would motivate me to work harder for an even bigger gift! I bought a lovely soft chain ring that came with a small diamond. The story that came with it fascinated me. Learnt from the trainer that this ring was like lingerie, that was supposed to be worn close to your skin that could be worn under other rings. From that day on, I wore it hoping that one day my prince charming would put a ring on top of my tiny one I had bought for myself as a placeholder.

The Sister Bangles
During my college years in London, I had 5 best friends and we did literally everything together! We lived close to each other, we went to the library together, and of course we partied together. It was honestly the best three years of my life. Unfortunately as for many best friend college stories go, after we graduation we drifted apart as each of us moved to different countries to pursue our professional agendas. Even though we were separated by continents, we have an annual tradition of all of us reuniting once a year. Each year we have a different host, and each host is responsible for organizing the agenda and surprises for all of the girls that are visiting. In 2008, it was my turn of organizing the reunion. As you all know, my love for jewelry has always ran pretty deep. So I came up with a creative way to start up the 2008 reunion! I went out and got silver bangles for each of us girls, to double as the invitation and the gift. Each bangle was engraved with the date and destination of the reunion. When everyone arrived, I gave each of them another single bangle engraved a few words of our special memories shared in London. Fast forwarding to today, as marriage, children and jobs have consumed our lives our reunions became understandably sparse to none at all. Even though there are no more reunions to attend to, I can still pull out my bangles and each time I do I get reminded of those times that we were all together. I love each of them deeply in their own special way, and they will forever be sisters of mine and I will be forever grateful for all the memories that are intrinsically stored into my bracelet.

The “29” Necklace
It was a birthday that I, like all women dread. The 29th birthday. The last year I would be in my twenties, and my last year of youth. It was a time when we all say those dreaded words, “Where has the time gone?” So what is a girl to do?! I decided I wasn’t going to sadden myself with becoming old, and decided to change my perspective into something more positive. I told myself, I was going to buy myself something nice and shiny to commemorate myself. I remember waiting for my flight at the Hong Kong International airport, and went to Tiffany’s. I perused through the selection and was able to make a quick decision. It was like love at first sight, it happened to be similar in style as my Dior ring with the small diamond, but this necklace’s diamond was slightly bigger. Sold! Like my first ring, this Tiffany’s necklace helped soften the blow of becoming older, and reminded me that I still had my thirties ahead of me to work harder for an even bigger one. It symbolized the perfect ending to my twenties and a beautiful start for my thirties.

The clover Bracelet
It was the first Christmas I celebrated with my then boyfriend (now husband). It was our first for a few things: Christmas together, and our first year together in Hong Kong. Because it was our first I wanted it to be absolutely perfect, which ultimately resulted in me being a demanding control freak and overall terrible experience for my poor boyfriend. My boyfriend is generally not a festive person, so you can only imagine how quickly fed up he became with my ridiculous demands. I gave him instructions on how we would celebrate this forced Christmas together, down to even telling him how our gift exchange was going down, under the Christmas tree I forced him to buy. As the two of us sat down to exchange gifts, the expression on his face was a mix of annoyance and nervousness because I made such a big deal out of it, he didn’t know if he took the right steps to make me happy. But, I didn’t care because as long as I got my tree and my gift I was happy! I excitedly tore open my gift from him and unveiled … a passport holder. He told me that my current one was old and dirty and I could use a new one. He sat there anticipating a disappointed reaction from me, but I couldn’t have been happier with it! The saying rung true, it was the thought that counted. I was in the market for a new passport holder, and I started to realize how much undeserving pressure I placed on my boyfriend. I thought the gift exchange was over and started to gather the wrapping paper to throw away, when my boyfriend pulled out another gift from behind the curtain. I didn’t expect anything else, so when I opened it I unveiled a new digital camera which was nice because it was another things on the list of things I needed to get! People always buy gifts with two different mind sets, buying things that people need or buying things that they want. My boyfriend got me two things that I needed, so I saw it as endearing and couldn’t have been happier with both gifts. But, to my surprise there was MORE! He said with an excited look on his face “Sorry, there’s just one more…” The surprises just kept coming! He handed me a small box, when I opened it it was the VCA bracelet I had been eyeing for quite some time. At that moment, instead of feeling ecstatic and filled with joy, I felt terrible and filled with guilt. Even though I got exactly what I wanted and this whole Christmas experience went perfectly, I felt guilty because the way I went about it was not right. I immediately flooded him with hugs and apologies, and expressed to him that I was honestly the most luckiest girl in the world not because of the gifts, but because I had the most understanding and loving person to experience this holiday with. I thanked him for the greatest gift of all, which was reminding me of what celebrating holidays really was about, which was being with the people you love. Kind of ironic to be reminded of this from someone who never celebrated Christmas, huh?

These are my stories, what are yours?