Well last night the inevitable happened.  My One bracelet that I’ve been wearing for the last year and ten months broke.

I originally got it when my church did a service about the movie Hotel Rwanda, and as part of the service, we had One bracelets that people could take and donate a couple bucks for (which we would then send off to the One campaign).  Though it began as an act of social awareness, the sentimentality I feel for this bracelet are because of something very different.  For the first couple months the bracelet served as a reminder of the growing issues in Africa and though I may not have donated lots of money or resources, I am certainly far more educated about the problem now than I was before I put on the bracelet. 

However, the reason I do feel a little bit of loss right now is because this is something I have carried with me for a year and ten months.  I don’t know of really anything else I own that has accompanied me as closely as this bracelet.  It’s been to Vancouver, San Francisco, Cincinnatti, Chicago, and no doubt about a thousand bars.

So that got me thinking about all the things that were different about my life a year and ten months ago, and the changes that the one bracelet has accompanied on.

-  First off, the church that had the service that got me the bracelet in the first place doesn’t exist anymore.

– I was barely even in a band, let alone one that is now trying to make it (trying well enough to move to Chicago in the fall), and has grown in maturity far more than I could have imagined.

– There are several people who are very important in my life now that I literally did not even know when I first put on that bracelet.

– I don’t really think about it much but it is amazing how different I look between then and now.  (just so you know, I’m the big one in the "then" picture)

– I’ve had dozens of potential loves appear and disappear, most of which I’ve written a song or two about in the meantime.

– There are so many things I’ve sworn I would stop or I would start when I first put on that bracelet.  Most of those I’m still saying I’ll stop or start soon.

So thanks One bracelet for being a companion through what has certainly been an interesting, frustrating, and beautiful couple years.  Now rest in honor on my office cubicle wall.