My Charm Bracelet

The first picture is a picture of my whole charm bracelet. It includes a “Hail Mary” charm. I am not Catholic, nor particularly religious, but for some reason I find it comforting to have this charm on my bracelet. When my little brother was three or four years old, found it at the playground and gave it to me. That was the original reason I put it on my bracelet, because I thought it was sweet that he would give a cool “found object” to me, but since then it’s become a fixture on my bracelet, a charm I can’t imagine it without.

The story behind my Snow White charm is simple…I am very pale with pink lips and dark brown hair, and often get called or compared to Snow White. Most people suggest that I go be the Snow White face character at Disneyland (I live near there), and when one of my friends told a group of people that didn’t know me that I was Snow White at Disneyland, they totally bought it and thought it was very cool. One day last summer my friend Kate and I went to Disneyland because she had started working there and could get us in free. We wandered around the many shops there looking to use her discount and then on a tiny little rack full of other Disney Princesses charms, I saw it—Snow White. Me! It was cheap, less than ten dollars, and since I “am” Snow White, I thought it would make a great and meaningful addition to my charm bracelet. Having her on my wrist is a constant reminder that I am beautiful the way I am and don't need to fit it with the blonde-haired Mystic tan California culture. 

This Brazilian symbol for good luck charm, to me, is a symbol for a noogie. Either way, I found the charm in my mom’s box of goodies and pilfered it (with her permission, of course!) for my charm bracelet. The silvery finish has worn away to a coppery patina that I like, and now I have good luck on my arm wherever I go!

An ankh (as you probably know) is an ancient Egyptian symbol for life, but for me it doesn’t represent that. When I was a little girl, I LOVED ancient Egypt—mummies, pyramids, hieroglyphics. I wanted to be an archaeologist and/or Egyptologist. As I grew up the fascination waned, but I saw this itty bitty charm at a bead shop and thought it would be a nice homage to my childhood fascination without being obnoxious like a scarab or mummy charm would be.

A Hamsa charm is an ancient Jewish and Muslim symbol of a hand with an eye in the hand that protects against the evil eye. When I first bought it, it was attached to a Kabala bracelet and had a goofy plastic jewel in the eye, and I wore it for practice protection from the evil eye—I felt that other girls were “hating” on me and I didn’t want their (unwarranted) jealousies to harm me (as silly as that sounds).

I also have a charm that is a Mercury dime with the bits around the head laser-cut out. My mom gave it to me when I was younger and I thought it was cool that the U.S. used to have a Roman god’s head on it’s coinage. I also liked the charm itself. It also inspired me to have a Euro coin with the head of Bottecelli’s Venus done up like that (into a charm) to represent my love for Europe, that particular painting, and pretty wavy hair.

My airplane charm is, quite simply, a depiction of my wanderlust. It runs in my family, but I love to travel and learn new things and meet new people and this little airplane is the representation of that love. When I wanted to be a flight attendant, it represented that and was a reminder of “You can do it!” Now, besides being a representation of my wanderlust, it’s a reminder that anywhere is just a plane ride (or train, or car, or boat, or donkey) away, and that keeps my hopes up during stressful times.

-Alexandra Keefe