{Spark}

I have this vivid memory from my childhood (I must have been about 5 or 6). My family went to a jewelery store to pick up a necklace that belonged to my mom. She had taken it in to get it repaired--I believe it had been snapped in half or something of that nature. That's not what's important, the reason why this memory stands out so vividly to me is because it was the first time I was wrongfully accused. The lady at the jewelry store looked at me and said, "Do NOT play with your mama's jewelry, you understand little lady?" I didn't play with her jewelry and I didn't snap the necklace in half--that I remember. I remember being so upset that this lady who didn't know anything about me would accuse me of doing something I didn't ever do.

My parents were in town a few weeks ago, and we were just shooting the shit when this story somehow got brought up. My mom said that she didn't even remember the story or even what necklace it could have been, but it must have been important to her at that time for her to spend money to get it repaired. My dad said he remembered going to the store, but he didn't remember what necklace it was either. Which brings me [ta-da] to my whole purpose in sharing this story with you: you know how a lot of times things seem so important at that time but years down the road you can't remember it or the importance of it? There are a lot of things that are so important to me right now: my wedding, my grad school decision, friends moving away, having to move out of post-college mode into adulthood, etc. Right now, all this seems OMG...SO IMPORTANT, but in all reality, what is really important are the things that will last longer than the next few months: my marriage, obtaining an MBA, starting new long distance friendship traditions, being an adult. What happens in the here and now are the things that make our lives worth living day to day, but what we make of it makes our whole lives worth living. Don't get caught up on fixing a necklace that 20 years later you won't remember. Focus on the most important things and all the others will just be things that happened.