I am not a person very attached to material things, so it was a little difficult for me to find three objects that represent some aspects of my life, my personality, who and what I believe in. Furthermore, being an international student means that you have to let behind not only your friends and family, but also many souvenirs, books, photo albums, etc, that are a part of yourself. However, these three objects I picked up for this project are very important for me, and for different reasons, meaningful. A book, a wedding ring, and a little set of "pocket souvenirs" that I always have in my purse.
THE BOOK
Written by Jacques Laurent (1919-2000), a respected French author member of L'Académie Française and a journalist, here is a book I read several times, and with no doubt, will read again. Moments particuliers, meaning "particular moments", is a succession of short texts that relate divers moments of the writer throughout his life, from his childhood to his old age. It is easy to read, funny and deep, well done, touchy, and each word has been chosen with accuracy, a real sense of balance and wisdom.
As Jacques Laurent said about this book, the "inexplicable persistence of these moments" is that no important consequence resulted from them". These scattered memories had in common only the fact to be peculiar, unclassifiable and unforeseen.
I read for the first time this book several years ago, and it became special for me because it represents the life as I see it, a succession of choices and moments, happy, sad, though, futile; sometimes important, often insignificant. And this is these last ones in particular the novelist talks about, these common but magic instants that we have a tendency to not see, to forgot; yet, there are the most important according to me, they are the cement, the foundations of life.
Since my first reading, I have some copies of Jacques Laurent's beautiful book, and may offer one of them as a gift, to persons or occasions I consider special.
This very simple ring is my mother's wedding ring. She gave it to me when my father bought a new one to her. Indeed, when they got married thirty years ago - against the full consent of their families - they were expecting their first child, me, and didn't have money to put in an exuberant celebration, nor diamond ring or expensive clothes. So ten years ago, my dad offered to my mother a new ring, to celebrate their twenty years wedding anniversary.
Therefore, this jewel is not only a link between my mom and me, although it is, especially now that I live very far away from my family; it also represents my idea of relationships in general, and love in particular. Not marriage, but love. Love as a serious and full commitment, that doesn't demand necessarily to go to the City Hall or the Church, but for sure, requires friendship, patience, forgiveness, honesty, reality, will power, comprehension, acceptation, and many other things. My parents are married for now thirty years, and they've been through a lot nice and difficult moments. I don't agree with all their choices of life, nor the entire relation they share, and I build on my own.
However, I have a profond respect and an admiration for the love they share, their strength and efforts to overcome difficulties because their story worth it. As my best friend told me once, "good things are not easy". I agree with that.
THE SET
The last set of objects I chose represent the most recent changements and decisions in my life : a portrait of my five years old daughter, a picture of my boyfriend and me, a quarter of the state of Louisiana, and finally, one of the first messages I got inside a fortune cookie. I always keep them all together close to me.
My daughter obviously, is the most important person in my life for the last six years. She is smart, kind, has a strong temper, and sometimes, gives me a reason to wake up when I don't see any. According to me, the relationship one share with our child is the deepest and longest commitment one will ever have, and the most important responsability, ever. To be in charged to transmit your knowledge, teach values, prepare your child to face the life, the society, as good as possible, is not easy. And it doesn't exist one and unique way to do, no recipe.
In second, come a picture of me and my boyfriend and a quarter marked with the state of Louisiana. The first time I came in New Orleans, I fell in love with a man and with a city. I knew immediatly that my road was now, somehow, linked to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I know where I come from, and my homeland will always be there in France; but here, in New Orleans, I've found a second home, a fascinating and comfortable hearth.
To conclude, these few words from a fortune cookie "Grand adventures await those who are willing to turn the corner", that resume the main idea of how I conduct my life.
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