The 16-Year Break

I don;t know how i could have possibly forgotten to mention this last night since it was extremely devastaing to me. I wear a purple bracelet (one of those 80s ones) on my left wrist that I have had on since I was in 4th grade (16 years). My childhood best friend and I traded them and promised we would never take them off, and until yesterday that was true for me. After my "I Can;t Be Here Next Year" speech I went to sit down in the auditorium to look at some pictures from the festival. I got up when I was done and look at my hand and it was gone. My heart dropped and I thought I was going to have a panic attack until I found it on the ground. It had totally split in half. Mind you, I have had ot repair it two other times with a threaed and needle, but both times it had stayed on my wrist. This was the first time it had ever been off. I freaked out and was on the verge of a breakdown. I know it sounds really silly to be obssessing over something like that, but it is what it represents and what it means to me. I am very into symbols and signs, so believe me I had a field day analyzing that one. I actually said "oh well" and tucked it away so I could save it somewhere, but I could not bear not having it on, so I pulled out the needle and thread and repaired it again. Again, I know it sounds silly but that bracelet represents so much to me about the first half of my life and the people I knew and the person I was, and altho I have a second one on my hand that means just as much, I couldn;t let the other one go.