Creating Warm Memories with Charm Bracelets

While growing up, most little girls have a best friend. Sure, they have other friends, but only one best friend that no one else can match. You probably remember your best friend from childhood. Mine was Maria, who lived on the same block. We became friends as soon as she moved on my street, but it wasn’t until a few months later that we became best friends. The day we became best friends, and not just friends, was the day we exchanged charm bracelets.

Our charm bracelets symbolized to us and the world that we were two of a kind. Even though we played with other kids in the neighborhood and at school, it was only the two of us that ate at each other’s house and spent the night together on Fridays. Every evening before we went home, we planned the next day together: where we would meet and what we would do. Our days were filled with many hours of exploring, playing with dolls, playing house, and playing kickball games with our other friends. The summer Maria moved to my street, we saw each other every day.

Our charm bracelets kept us connected, even on those days when we couldn’t spend all our spare time together. In the fall, we were assigned separate classes and could only see each other at lunch time and recess. That first day of school, we exchanged one of the charms on our bracelets to remind us of each other all through the day when we were apart.

Later that year my family and I left to vacation in California, and I had to say goodbye to Maria for a while, but I promised her I’d bring her back something special for our charm bracelets. That promise helped make the ten days we would be apart more bearable. It was the longest time we'd been separated since we became best friends. When I got back, I immediately ran over to her house and gave her the special charm I had chosen to make our best friend charm bracelets even more complete.

In the following years, Maria and I got so many new charms that the day came when our charm bracelets were full. We couldn’t put any more new charms on them! It was sad to fill our charm bracelets! It was even sadder when Maria and her family moved far away soon after we graduated from high school. When we separated, we promised each other that we’d wear our charm bracelets every day until we were together again.

Although we never got together again, and my charm bracelet became a treasured possession of the past, I think every kid should have a best friend and a charm bracelet to remember her by!