Literature

By: Ryleigh (11)

I carry a pandora bracelet. The one I received for my birthday five years prior, the one I have worn everyday since. The cool silver hanging off my wrist, a small reminder that it is there. Always clasped loosely around my right hand. Swinging. Strung randomly around the silver chain hang ten individually bought charms. The bracelet itself weighs a total of about 1.6 ounces while each individual charm weighs between 0.1 and 0.2 ounces. Each one carries with it a certain significance and story. Each one a reminder of the life I am living and of the places I have been and the things I have seen and the things I hope to accomplish. The tangible melding into the intangible, carrying the weight of memories, the weight of dreams and the weight of the silver itself.

Among the ten charms is a heart, encrusted with fake diamond jewels and intricately woven silver, a symbol of my birth month and stone, flags that stay as remembrance of the countries I have spent the majority of my life in; one for Australia, one for Spain, and one, of course, for Chile, a mickey mouse figurine for all the summers spent in orlando with my grandparents passing the days at Disney, and an R for my name. My favorite charm depicts the big five: an elephant, a rhino, a lion, a leopard and an african buffalo, a small memorandum of the four and a half years I spent living in Ethiopia. The token reminds me of the things I saw, the memories I made, and the friends I have kept. It helps me

to appreciate what I have and express how lucky I am to have the things I do and to be able to have the opportunities that I do.

Every now and then I can hear the soft jingle of a harmony bell, the one my dad gave me as a Christmas gift one year. It hangs loosely at my side, placed between my birth stone and big five charm, ringing gently, this harmony bell contains the properties of a good luck charm. The small ball is covered in 7 individually etched stars. It is a reminder of the family I have and of the people I am closest to, it became almost a sort of safety net for me. Something I could put my trust in when everything was out of my control, a relic that I could put my energy into when I felt like too much was weighing on my shoulders, I could leave the world and my fate up to luck. Luck that is brought to me by that single star covered charm.

The year of 2019 was one that I struggled with, I had just moved in the middle of the year. A new school, a new house, a new country. But right before I could adjust to everything new in my life, a pandemic locked everything down. I did not have the chance to make friends or see the school, I felt alone, I felt tired, I felt excluded.

I’ve never been a particularly superstitious or religious person, but having the harmony bell close by, hanging on my pandora bracelet, cool silver brushing against my skin, I gain access to a certain feeling of reassurance and trust. Despite my skeptical nature. Not only does it act as a talisman for spiritual enlightenment but it also acts as a reassurance of the family I have to go home to everyday and the support that I have from them in everything I do.

The bracelet is a symbol of my own hardships in the world, it was gifted to me in one of the more difficult moments of my own life. During the pandemic when things felt hopeless. It was a time of solitary confinement and emotional struggle but I know now and I knew then that I was not really ever alone because the love of my family was with me even in the most challenging of times. Even when they were not physically there, I had the bell charm as a source to keep them with me in my heart. The cool silver brushing against my skin, a constant soother

to the stress I felt and the overwhelming days that I often faced. Never truly alone, never truly lost, never truly out of luck.

So every time I carry my pandora bracelet, all of this is with me in the back of my mind, constantly pushing me forward and encouraging me to work hard for what I have. Helping me to believe, not only in myself but in my future and in my abilities to continue growing and to continue improving alongside the people I love most in the world. So every time I carry my pandora bracelet I think of how lucky I am and how as long as I believe, my dreams will one day come true.