365 Days (Part 2) | ✓

263. Symbolism

263. Symbolism: Think of objects, animals, etc. that have symbolic meaning to you. Write about it.

I have a keychain that I hang on my purse. It doesn't have any keys on it, ironically. It’s a keychain of souvenirs, of memories, and of reminders. It attaches to the metal clasp that hooks the purse strap to the purse body, so that everywhere I go I jangle and jingle with the metal keychains smacking into each other.

Sometimes I like to go through them and remember what particular time I sought to embody in this small item. I don't buy keychains for everything, but only for the special times. Like there's the sandal that my first love bought me for no reason whatsoever. There's the cowboy boot I bought to remind me of when I rode a horse with one of my best friends through the fields as the sun set. There's the message in a bottle for when we went on a cruise and I wrote my first letter to my future husband.

I think it's important to treasure memories, not to place them in higher importance than dreams, but to remember them, to learn from them, and to take joy from them when you can find none in your present circumstances.

Here's the one from when me and my beloved brother played an extremely enthusiastic game of charades in a hotel room, while our parents laughed at us. Here's the one from when I nearly fainted in front of Prince Caspian. Here's the one when I lost my cat. Here's the one where I found myself again.

I want to be reminded: of when I first fell in love, and when I first broke someone's heart. Of when I couldn't stop laughing and when I couldn't stop crying. I want to know that for every bad time there's a good, and I want to know that good times don't last forever, so to prize them when they're here.

I want to learn from the past.

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Although this is mostly fictional, I do have a keychain hanging on my purse with different keychains on it from a bunch of places I've been.