Every little girl has a jewelry box. I’ve had one for so long that I don’t ever remember getting it. I do know that I’ve always been jealous of my sister’s jewelry box. Mine is from the Precious Moments Children Collection, its pastel and has a trademark saying on the inside spinning heart. My sister’s was dark-colored and romantic. It had teddy bear animals in Victorian dresses and in a horse-drawn carriage, surrounded by roses and leaves. On the inside was a spinning ballerina girl in pink, like a real music box should. Yes, I’m still jealous, but it’s what’s on the inside that matters. Right on top is what might be my favorite thing I’ve kept, my kindergarten corsage. It’s just a fake rose and a few tiny blue flowers with a red and blue ribbon in a bow. It even still has the pin stuck into it. Other things I have include: two plastic turtles I must have gotten from the aquarium, a tiny bag of colored rocks, a god-child angel charm from my godmother, a rosary, two holy chalice charms, a flattened penny from the Kennedy Space Center, and a Beanie Babies tag I saved from one of my teddy bears because I liked what it said. All the religious things I must have gotten from my First Communion (religion is another memory to write about, though). Everything else is actual jewelry, well, the little kid kind made of beads and elastic. There’s two pink plastic sparkly bangles, two beaded rings (does anyone else have rings made of beads?), a real ring with a purple rock, a silver gem-studded Hello Kitty necklace, a golden star within a star necklace, a golden cross with pink hearts at the end of the points necklace, a tiny golden angel holding my birthstone, a friendship bracelet of glow-in-the-dark beads and dolphin charms, a bracelet my sister made of beads with Asian characters on them, a bracelet of assorted beads including a cream-colored butterfly and a clear and red star, a rainbow bracelet I think my sister made, a matching green, blue, and purple beaded bracelet and necklace with the charm of a blue heart, and three tiny blue and silver bracelets. As you can tell, my sister was into beads when she was little; it was kind of the thing at the time. I used to have more friendship bracelets, but those I actually wore and so they got stretched out and broken. I wasn’t a jewelry person when I was a child, but I’ve grown into one.