I was watching a video today where the speaker shared that she didn’t need glasses, but she wore non-prescription ones because she loved the way that they made her feel. Wearing glasses allowed her to unleash what she believed to be her persona of a cute “nerdy girl,” so even if they weren’t necessary for her vision, she continued to wear them because they made her feel great.
This reminded me of my own relationship with wearing jewelry and why I’m so passionate about it. Growing up, I was never cool or fashionable and the things that I wore were only as valuable as their function to me. Clothes covered my body and kept me warm, shoes protected my feet, bags held all of my necessary things, etc. I wasn’t really into design or the way that things looked and my family was constantly getting on my case about how I needed to take more pride in my appearance. In retrospect, I think I really lacked confidence in myself and my appearance, which is why I didn’t even try to make myself look good.
Fast forward to my junior year in college when I spontaneously decided to treat myself to a really fancy, dangly pair of earrings. They weren’t expensive, but they were the prettiest thing that I had treated myself to in a long time. It’s amazing how I felt when I put them on and went out to class that day. For the first time in a while, I actually felt good about the way that I looked and it made me feel like I wanted to reveal a whole new me. I started dressing better and putting in more effort into fixing my hair and makeup everyday and I loved the way that my friends noticed how much more confident and happier I seemed with myself. I was smiling a lot more and opening up to meeting new people and new experiences. All of that started from one pair of sparkly earrings!
From that experience, I learned an important lesson that sometimes, it just takes one thing to make us feel better about ourselves or more in tune with who we are. I’m not saying that physical appearances are the be all and end all of everything, but for me, it just took that one pair of long dangly earrings to make me feel pretty and happy. Seriously, I can still remember how everytime I felt the swish of those earrings against my neck, I always had to smile with joy.
That’s the reason why I absolutely love what I do. Jewelry is usually not something that we wear for its function. It usually doesn’t keep us warm or really protect our bodies much, but what it does do is allow yourself to add that extra touch of sparkle or that extra bit of fun to help you feel good and bring out the best you. I remember once when my classmate and I were commiserating over all of the hours we were spending typing up papers during finals week. I had to laugh when she told me that in order to make the task seem a little less mundane, she put a ring on one of her fingers, so that she could admire the sparkle as her hands clicked away at her keyboard.
I love being able to give other people the same experience when they put on a piece that I made. It makes me so happy to hear when somebody says that they love the way that they’re always complimented whenever they wear one of my pieces. It brings me so much joy when somebody says that they gifted my jewelry to someone and that person absolutely loved it. To me, jewelry isn’t something that you just put on. Rather, it’s an experience! To everybody out there who has allowed me to share that experience with you, thank you so much! I’m going to continue to keep doing my best to help you create more happy experiences with each of my pieces!
