The Earring Analogy: an Organizing Nerd-Out

Why do you have a bunch of pictures of jewelry?
Is that what you were wondering? Well as it so happens, I spent a thrilling evening organizing my earrings yesterday and if you think I am being sarcastic, I'm not - I really like organizing.

Nerd.

As you can see from this sampling of my earring plethora, I have gone through many styles in the four and a half years of piercage. Yes, that is me right after I got my ears pierced at 16 - it was a big deal since I was the first girl in my family (and still the only) to get pierced ears, but I thank my sister-in-law for convincing my mom that she should let me do it so I could stop wearing the fake and often ugly homemade earrings.

While I was having this therapeutic organizing session and thinking about the stories that went along with these earrings - birthday gifts, home-made creations, first date, the one that got vacuumed up and spat back out, digging through the Brighton bins for hours, going away presents, concerts and dances- I suddenly became very sentimental and philosophical. For me this often results in weird inventions. In this case it is an analogy.

Earrings... are like friendships. Some earrings are classy, some are goofy, some you never wear but you enjoy looking at them and some you used to wear all the time and now don't.

This has been a year of weird friendships for me. I've met many incredible and fun people. I have also however, lost a lot of friends. Some girls but most are guy friends. It has been hard dedicating a lot of time to someone- being a friend to them and then to have them tell you they no longer are going to talk to you or spend time with you. That has seemed to be the theme this year.

I have been frustrated that old friends have moved on to different stages that I can't connect with - marriage, babies.

I have been frustrated that my school's track system means that you may only see some of your friends for three months of the year if they don't have the same system as you.

And mostly I have been frustrated that dating ruins friendships - especially when I tried so hard to just keep it a friendship.

But despite that, and even though I now rotate through 'friends' faster than I ever have before, I am grateful for all of those people. I still care about them and I still value my memories with them.

Just like earrings - you may have a favorite pair that you wear all the time but eventually your style may change. You don't wear them as much but you still are fond of them, you have good memories with them.

Kind of a stretch yes, but it did get out a lot of feelings I have been frustrated about lately.