What’s In My Pockets

What a person keeps with them says a lot about them, such as what they value or find important, and what they like or dislike. I am a maximalist when it comes to what I keep on my person. It feels wrong to leave the house without some sort of bag on my shoulder as I’ve been doing it since I was a child. I was a silly kid who refused to call my bag a purse almost until high school, even though that is what it was. What did a 9-year-old have to keep on their person at all times? Well, some string to play cat’s cradle of course, a pen and notepad, ChapStick, lip gloss, a hair clip that was never used as intended, probably a cool rock and a book.

What do I determine so important to always keep in my purse now? I still keep a pen or two and a notepad, ChapStick, lotion, gum, my phone and keys of course. Handy items like a nail file, nail clippers, band aids, wet wipes, Kleenex, a granola bar, a reusable straw or two. Things that earn you the title of “mom friend.”

And what have I determined so important that it must always be on my person? Every morning I wake up and get dressed for the day, as most of us do, and usually wear two necklaces, fit several items in my small lady-pockets, and always wear two bracelets that I even sleep with. One of my bracelets I made myself, another is a single-decade rosary bracelet. One of my necklaces was a gift from my friend, the other is a collection of saint medals. During school I clip my apartment keys, Ucard, and overabundance of keychains (including lotion) to my belt loop and sometimes fit it in my pocket and keep my rosary in the other pocket. It is these two items, my keys and my rosary, that I pause in the doorway to check my pockets for before leaving the house.

The “Friendship Bracelet”

Saying I make friendship bracelets feels childish, cliché and camp-y, like saying I also enjoy singing kumbaya around campfires. I don’t think making friendship bracelets is what I do most of the time. Can I really call them friendship bracelets if I only sometimes make them for other people, and they only sometimes are actual, functional bracelets? I don’t think there is another word to describe the act of using multi-colored strings to create a flat, intricate repetitive pattern out of a long collection of forward-knots and backward-knots. However, my friend has dubbed it “hand weaving” and I sometimes just refer to the act as “crafting” and the result as “my craft.”

Years ago, it might have been 2017, when I first learned how to make something like this at summer camp, I wore the resulting bracelet daily until I returned to that same camp again a year later. That first time I don’t think I even knew what I was trying to make and as I wore it throughout the year it just devolved into a yellow and blue string.

In the summer of 2018, I really learned how to make the crafts I make today. I went on a 2-week mission trip to Indianapolis and some girls had some embroidery floss. So of course, we all learned how to make the stripe pattern, which I now despise, a tiki pattern that I did not learn until later, and the chevron pattern. The ones I made that summer still sit in a plastic baggie, along with the ones I made just last week. I remember one time all us girls on the trip went to some sort of music-in-the-park event and we had a little picnic, all sitting in a circle working on our bracelets. It was adorable. That same summer when I went back to camp I was better equipped with my own string and knowledge of a few new patterns. This time though, my friend taught me a new pattern, I remember it as “the knitted pattern.” It is easy but takes a long time to make. I made that pattern at camp, with orange-to-red ombre string and blue-to-light blue ombre string and purple string, and wore it for another year, and the cycle repeated. For a few years I was wearing a “yearly bracelet” that I had made during my time at camp each year.

However, I haven’t been to that camp in a few years. Covid happened, I “grew out” of it and my younger siblings stopped going, so I haven’t made a yearly bracelet in a little while. A few weeks ago, though, in January 2024, I learned a new pattern and have been obsessed with it since then. It looks intricate, cute, and elegant, but is simple to make. That is when I realized this would be my bracelet of the year. The pattern looks like a chevron but has a small flower-like or heart-like design in the middle. Three flowers using two colors, and a third color surrounding them all. I chose green, blue, and white and whipped up the bracelet in just a few days, complete with an adjustable strap. I now wear it 24/7 and whenever someone asks about my hobbies or interests or I want to talk about it I can easily show them. This is also the closest I get to being creative when I am surrounded by creative people and creative friends.

A Pocket Rosary

The most meaningful item that I keep on me is a rosary. Any rosary will be meaningful to me, it is a reminder of my faith, of Mary, a “crutch” for prayer when I don’t know what to pray, but a few weeks ago I got a new one that I highly value.

I decided to start keeping a rosary in my pocket a few months ago, I don’t know exactly the date, but it was when I got a cheap plastic rosary from when Newman Catholic Campus Ministry was tabling at UMD one day. Before then, I had been keeping a rosary in my backpack for a few weeks and prior to that I did not even know how to pray the rosary, so I just had a few in a box in my bedroom. I made a plastic one a few years ago, and my grandma gave me a nice-looking crystal one that feels too nice to use.

The first week of this past January, I attended SEEK, which I would describe as the big Catholic conference for college students. During the week, there was one hall with a lot of booths containing shops, different religious orders, volunteer organizations, some activities, and more. I was shopping around on Thursday, the second to last day, looking for something for my mom (since it was her birthday, and I was away) and maybe my sister (since I was her confirmation sponsor). My hands were full as I walked around the hall, with my big winter jacket, my bag for the day, and my provided box lunch. I had been wandering around shops each day until then, so I had an idea of the shops I wanted to look at. There were plenty of rosaries being sold, and many were gorgeous but a little out of my price range with my small college student budget. While looking for a different rosary I had been eyeing earlier in the week, I found the stretchy wooden rosary that I now keep in my pocket. Since it was basically the last day for most of the shops there was a two-for-one deal on these specific rosaries, so I got one for my mom and one for my pocket (an upgrade from the cheap plastic one). It was very crowded and very warm in that hall, so I only chatted with the nun at the shop for a minute then went about my way.

Later that day, my friend asked me for some details about the rosary, which the nun had told me, but I realized I had already forgotten. What wood was it made from? Is the dirt encased in the middle really from Jerusalem? Someone mentioned something about a relic? So later that day, I went back to the shop. So, the person working the second time I visited explained everything to me, and this time I took notes. The beads are made from olive wood from Jerusalem, and yes there is soil in the middle from Jerusalem. The thread it is strung on is nylon, so it is super stretchy and durable, and yes, the rosaries are touched in bulk to a first-class relic, therefore making them a third-class relic. I was glad to have learned about all of this and went on my merry way. At another booth, some Carmelite monks were selling some books and had a few first-class relics on display too. Relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, her parents, and (I think) St John of the cross. So, I touched my two new rosaries (mine and my mom’s) to all three of these relics, making the rosaries a third-class relic 4 times over now.

This wooden rosary is simple but elegant, which I think makes it perfect for a pocket rosary. The crucifix is relatively simple and made of a silver metal. The image of Mary in the middle (which has the soil displayed on the other side) depicts her with the baby Jesus, which is something that has always impacted me about my faith (that God would become a baby dependent on a mother). There is always an image of Mary in the middle of a rosary, but not always with baby Jesus. The wooden beads seem to be encased in resin, they are smooth and glossy, but some have small chips or ridges. The wooden beads make up the Hail Mary and Our Father beads, and separating each decade of Hail Marys from the Our Father bead are two smaller plastic silver beads. The silver color of these beads is already fading or flaking off revealing a yellowish color underneath. I like to wrap the rosary around my hand or wrist, thanks to the stretchiness of it, or just hold it or have it in my lap. Knowing that it is also a relic of the saints makes me feel more connected to them and protected by them.

Summing Me Up

These items don’t define me, but they sum me up pretty well. The meaning of these symbols aren’t obvious to everyone, but I think that if someone knows about them, they can understand me a little bit more. One of my current necklaces shows I value my friend. With my bracelet I am easily able to show someone an example of my hobby. All over me are small symbols of my faith. My abundance of keychains and chaotic-looking phone all have some sort of story or explanation around them. Take a peek in my purse and maybe you’ll know I’m the oldest sister, or the mom friend. Take a peek in my backpack and maybe you’ll recognize my preference towards organization or physical materials as opposed to digital. Yes, of course these might not be obvious, no I do not always deliberately try to communicate through my possessions, but I think you can learn more, small things, about a person in these ways.