For me, one of these moments sticks out more than any of the others. It wasn't getting my first period or kissing a boy. It was the day I bought my first 'proper' wallet.
I know this sounds silly, but I had always associated having a certain kind of wallet with age.
When you're little, you have a little purse that holds the coins you get each week for pocket money. When you bought something, you would carefully open it and count out the treasured coins that you'd been saving for weeks one by one.
As you got a little older, you moved on to the fold up wallet. I don't know it's proper name, but you folded one flap in, and then closed the other flap on top, sealing it up with a Velcro strip. You felt cool with this wallet, as it could house the notes that you now received on a weekly basis from your pocket money increase.
I think I was maybe sixteen when I decided it was time to 'grow up.' I remember pulling out my Velcro wallet one day, and I was a little embarrassed. I felt immature as I ripped it open, the familiar tearing sound no longer a sign of growing up, but now a sign of being young and out of the game.
I decided to upgrade to what I call a 'lady wallet.' It probably has a real name, but it's flat and wide enough to house your much bigger notes without folding them. It has a zip pocket to store the coins that now seem to be insignificant, and multiple slips to to hold your masses of cards - the cashflow card, the Video Ezy membership card, the 'buy five, get one free,' coffee card and the shoe loyalty card. You feel a lot more mature with this wallet. To you it's a statement of your coming of age.
Even if it is bright green.
2 comments:
I remember getting my first billfold, and then my first checkbook, and then my first non-clip tie. I haven't thought of how that made me feel back then in a long long time.
Non clip tie, yes! That was much more momentous for me, since I never really had much use for a wallet anyway. I just pocketed most things. But in middle school, we had real ties, but Dad tied them and you just loosened and readjusted every day. Nobody minds a sloppy knot. High school though, it was time to take charge of your own knot. And then our Greek teacher taught us the bow tie knot - I felt truly elite!
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