Travel Touchstones: Earrings

Kristy Wendel went on her first Adult Journey over a decade ago.

Travel Touchstone: Earrings

I have always loved earrings. They can be a delicate accessory or bright statement piece. As a little girl, my parents had me wait (quite impatiently) until I was 10 years old to get my ears pierced. I had to start with basic studs and couldn’t wait to wear something more exciting. My dad gifted my first pair of dangle earrings, which he had picked up in Estonia shortly after the fall of the USSR. Every time I look at those earrings, it takes me back to those memories. I can tell you where every pair of earrings has come from since. Sure, some came from the mall to go with a prom dress and you better believe I can tell you which mall and which prom dress. There’s the silver pair with Celtic designs from Galway, Ireland. There are the Nephrite Jade greenstone drop earrings from Wellington, New Zealand. The Tahitian pearls from Bora Bora. The Mikimoto pearls from Japan. The simple shell post earrings my new husband brought from Cuba. The hand-cut wood earrings from Girdwood, Alaska. The $9.99 earrings, price tag still on, from a Target in Seattle, Washington from my late husband, which would be the last gift received from him before he died of cancer at age 34. When I see or wear these little bits of twisted metal and semi-precious stones, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the people in my life and the places we have collectively been.