The Perfect Pandora Gift!

My family is very sentimental, and, I am probably the biggest sap of the bunch. My mother has always been fantastic at buying things for me that I want to keep forever.  My 16th birthday was no exception.  My birthday is in February, so it was always a gamble as to whether or not my birthday party would be a flop.  This was a big year, so we geared up for it.  My parents threw me a huge birthday party with tons of friends and family.  The weather held, and everyone made it to my party.  I received many gifts and cards from all of the partygoers.  What I did not know was that I would receive a gift that would be the start of a wonderful tradition.  I received my very first charm on my 16th birthday. It is a sterling silver number 16 with a blue bar across the middle that says, SWEET. I wore that charm for years on a charm holder pendant and wore that charm, alone, for a few years, until it just seemed inappropriate to wear alone.  At that point, I put it away in my special little keepsake cedar box.  It was so special, it made me sad, but I couldn’t just wear a SWEET 16 charm when I was twenty, twenty-one, and so on.  That charm stayed in my keepsake box for many years; and then, years after my own children were born, I had a very close friend that I wanted to buy something very special for Christmas.  I couldn’t come up with the right gift, no matter how hard I looked.  I just happened to walking through a store one day when I saw a display with charms.  That was it!  The perfect gift!  What a wonderful idea!  I could buy her a charm bracelet and her first few charms, and then she could start a beautiful chronological keepsake of her life.  Well, after that I became engrossed in the charm phenomenon. Just a few years ago, I bought a sterling silver charm bracelet to start my own collection. I finally found a permanent home for my SWEET 16 charm and all of the many charms to come.  Every time I go to any store that carries any type of jewelry, I have to stop and look for a charm.  The charm has to be just perfect and say something significantly important to me.  It’s a tradition I intend to continue for a long, long time.

-Richard Koenig