What is love?
A common attribute that everyone always looks for in a person is how loving he or she is. I aspire to always have that quality, even though being a teenager sometimes makes that difficult when our uncontrollable attitude tends to bubble to the surface. I consider myself a very loved person for the reason that I am constantly wearing two things that represent the love that two people in my life have for me, my clauddagh ring and my Tiffany & Co. necklace.
Being from a half Irish family, wearing a clauddagh ring happens to be a common occurrence. Getting a little blue box from your boyfriend on your sixteenth birthday, not so common. For those of you who have never heard of the little blue box, it is referring to Tiffany & Co. Tiffany & Co. is a very prestigious jewelry company that are commonly remembered by their blue wrap. A clauddagh ring is an Irish tradition. Whether it is gold or silver, big or small, all clauddagh rings have the same meaning. When it comes to my life both my necklace and ring have great meaning to me.
My grandfather passed away when my mom was thirteen, so once my thirteenth birthday rolled around, she decided to give me what he gave her for her thirteenth birthday. She gave me her gold claudagh ring. I wear my Irish ring every day and I could not tell you the last time I took it off. Someone would be able to tell how much I wear it by the fact that my finger is thinner at the bottom because of it, and I always have a constant tan line from it, no matter what the time of year is. Any person of Irish decent would be able to tell you the very special meaning that a clauddagh ring represents. The clauddagh's distinctive design has two hands clasping a heart, and is usually surmounted by a crown. The heart is said to represent love, the hands represent friendship, and the crown represents loyalty. If you wear the ring with the heart facing yours, it means that your heart is taken. If you wear the ring with the heart facing away from yours, it means that your heart is not taken. I wear it on the ring finger of my right hand facing my heart for the fact that if I wore it on my left ring finger it would mean that I am engaged or married.
When I turned sixteen, my boyfriend, James, took me out to lunch the weekend before and as I was saying bye to him, he handed me something. It was a little blue bag. He completely caught me by surprise because I was never expecting something that nice. Inside it was a sterling silver necklace with a ribbon-like heart on a round pendant. “I wanted to get you something with a heart on it to signify how I feel about you,” he said to me as he handed me the bag. Just like when I wear my ring, by me wearing it on a daily basis and never taking it off, it gives me the feeling that there is always a guardian angel watching over me when James is not there physically to do so. When James and I are apart from each other, like how we are currently, being at opposite sides of the country and at college, my necklace keeps us emotionally connected.
My grandfather and my boyfriend are two very important male figures in my life. With an exception of my own father, they are the two men I love the most. Although they cannot physically show there love towards me 24-7, especially my grandfather, these two pieces of jewelry let me know that this is their way of showing me how they really feel. There is always a different kind of love between a grandpa and her granddaughter than there is between a boyfriend and his girlfriend; a heart signifies love for all. The hands of friendship and the crown of loyalty in my clauddagh ring signify the type of love that my Grandpa Tom has for me, while the heart on my necklace signifies the type of love that my boyfriend has for me. Love is an intense feeling of tender affection and compassion. They both show it in different ways, and my ring and necklace represent love in different ways, but at the end of the day they both mean the same thing.
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