I ordered my necklace with the word "breathe" engraved on it because that is exactly what I needed to do. I needed to breathe. At the time, I felt stuck and overwhelmed and full of anxiety. I needed a daily token to keep me grounded, to remind me that it is just another day and although everything seems to be going wrong, I could overcome it, if i just took it one breath at a time. Wearing my necklace every day made me feel a little less alone in the mess that life had handed me.
Over the past year, I have developed a friendship with one of my students that has reaffirmed my choice in career paths. You know when you meet someone and you both think the same way, say similar things, have similar senses of humor, and just get each other yet you never knew one another before? That's our friendship. She is heading into the summer before her senior year and off to a badass summer internship in NYC. She has told me that while she is beyond excited, she is also nervous about what is ahead. As I am graduating from my graduate program and leaving for a job at a different school in May, I wanted to do something more than tell her that I believe in her and that even though she may feel nervous and uneasy about the future, she deserves all the beauty that it holds. So I gave her my necklace today. I told her what it had meant for me and that I hope it could mean something as significant to her, as she is significant to me.
I was ecstatic when I received my key in the mail last fall, but it doesn't hold a candle to passing it on to someone else who needs the message it holds. What a powerful and joyous moment. Thank you, The Giving Keys
