The Wallet

This is not a Favorite Pieces post.

I don't get bored with things easily. In fact, if I really love something, I wear it as often as I can and end up mourning its eventual demise.

But as with all things in life, the usual is not the always.

On Sunday, when I went to grab my wallet out of my bag to pay for a new pair of skinny jeans at Second Time Around, I took a real look at it for the first time in months.

I bought my current wallet during my first trip to Century 21 in the fall of 2005. My wallet at the time was falling to pieces, and I needed something to replace it. I was still in the early stages of my fashion education and chose the simplest one available. Its one exciting feature was its blood red color, and for me, at that time, that was enough. I quickly became bored with it but never enough to replace it. It still performed its function and was only taken out of my bag when there was money to be exchanged. So what if it was fraying at the seams now? Or that the leather had lost all of its previously held structure? The few minutes that people glimpsed it weren't all that important.

But Sunday afternoon, I placed it on the glass case that the register stood on as I waited for my debit card to be approved and looked at the set of shelves behind the girl handling my sale. All of the most expensive items lived there, held for safekeeping. The designer shoes and designer bags. And a few designer wallets. And though I didn't want those, I realized that I did want something new. Needed something new. The Wallet didn't fit into my life anymore. It was time for it to be replaced.

It is the last discernible remnant of a Samantha that no longer exists. One for whom good enough was acceptable when making a purchase. Now, no matter whether it's a $4 bracelet from H&M or a pair of Joe's Jeans, good enough is never good enough.

And so the search begins for a replacement.