By: Charlie S.

About a year and a few months ago, Eric made me a necklace out of some string he had lying around in his room. To me, this was a grand gesture of love and appreciation for our relationship even though we have a decent distance between us most times during the year. This necklace always reminds me of him and the memories we made when we were not so far apart.

Approximately 14 inches measuring from knotted end to knotted end, the necklace falls perfectly in the concave crater created by the merging point of my collar bones. The string, most likely made from cotton, has a rougher texture in relation to other textures of string, but has softened the more I wear it. It used to be bright white, but over the long year in my possession the twine has turned brownish-yellow from my constant insistence to keep it on at all times. There is a large knot on either end of the necklace, its purpose to keep the twine from unwinding. The ends of the knots have developed short, frayed tufts of freed twine that stick straight despite being soft to the touch. The bulk of the necklace, made from three individual pieces of string, is a braid, for the reason being that Eric is unknowledgeable in how to craft any other kind of strand out of twine. Its simplicity is obvious, but the tightness of the braid itself has maintained very nicely from the tediousness of Eric’s fingers, keeping the individual pieces of string taught in the making of the necklace.

Even though it functions as one piece of adornment, the necklace is made up of two separate parts: a longer, older gift, and a shorter attachment that came with something eye-catching. The longer piece of braided necklace was gifted to me about 2 months before our first parting for the academic year. The shorter segment of the necklace, that Eric carefully crafted a few months later, was created with the purpose of being a “unique” addition to my already existing piece of remembrance. Eric managed to attach a token to the separate, smaller segment of braided twine with some sort of knot I still cannot understand (and Eric is unable to explain). I believe this might have been a thoughtless recall of Eric’s knotting skills from his days as an Eagle Scout. The segment holding the token, somehow, precisely coiled itself around the original twine necklace, perfectly centered, and has cemented itself in that exact position. 

Eric eventually mentioned to me that the thing hanging from my new favorite necklace is a New York City subway token. This token being an object I had never known about until it was uttered into existence. Although the token was unfamiliar to me, I believed it to be interesting enough to wear around my neck for all to see. The token is round with a visible thickness to it, but not so thick that it is too clunky to wear around one’s neck. There is a pentagonal shape cut out from the middle, making it a perfect necklace charm. It appears to be smaller than a quarter, but slightly larger than a nickel. On the front facing side of the token it reads: “New York City Transit Authority.” The beginning of the statement is separated from the end with a small raised diamond, floating, spaced evenly between the first letter “N” and last letter “Y”. Behind the lettering is a diamond grid pattern that makes the words stand out against the monochromatic metal token. The words are surrounded by an outermost ring of smooth, unprinted metal and an inner ring slightly thinner than the outer one. Further within the slightly thinner ring is yet another ring, pressed flat enough to notice a difference in height between that and the previous ring. Repeatedly, there is then one more final ring that is the thickest in width and is raised to the same height as the outermost and inner raised rings. The final portion of the token is the center, where the pentagon shape has been pierced through a more flattened part of the token. On the opposite side, the alternating ring pattern is consistent with that minted on the front. The coloring of the backside is more greenish in contrast to the silvery front, most likely due to its age. The back also has another, differing set of words reading: “Good For One Fare.” This time, there are not one, but two raised floating diamonds: one separating the “G” in “Good” from the “O” in “One” and another separating the “R” in “For” from the “E” in “Fare.”

I have realized through this description I feel more of a connection to this necklace than some of my other pieces of jewelry. Because of the nature of its existence, this necklace never fails to make me smile each time I feel the cool, yet smooth token between my fingers. It reminds me that there is someone out there that cares about me.