An Ode to My Wallet

A big thing happened this week: I got a new wallet. The walllet I had was the first one I ever had. I got it around 7th grade, and it's been with me through these last 12 years. It was where I put my first earnings as a paper-boy. It was where I put my first drivers license, and subsequently put my first speeding ticket on that first day I got my drivers license. It's also where I put that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th speeding ticket too. That wallet held my first debit and credit card, and later aided me in poor-decision making regarding credit cards and silly debt (which I've since corrected). The wallet was in my pocket every time I left the country: Europe, Asia, Bahamas, Mexico. The wallet remembers being most used in Italy, where it grew surprisingly thin as the Euro quickly vanished into leather goods and three-course dinners. I pulled out my wallet to pay for many-a-meal, including the dinner Joy and I shared the evening we were engaged. My hand was shaking, but the wallet was steady. And then, when I was married, it was that wallet I opened at the airport on the way to Mexico and realized that I had left my debit card in the ATM the day before and had no way to get the money I'd planned on for my honeymoon. Thankfully, the wallet also still stored a small piece of paper that had the pin numbers of my other credit cards written from years before (another poor decision, I acknowledge, but quite helpful in that moment).

As I aged and matured, the wallet did so as well. Sadly, it reached its time sooner than I, and in its final months was a pitiful sight compared to what it once was in those glory days. The leather was breaking off at the folds, the lining was ripped from years of reaching for money that was never there, and the real hit came this Christmas when my grandpa even commented on the sad state of the wallet I carried around with me. He told me that when he saw me next, I'd better have a new wallet, and if you know how wise my grandpa is, you know to listen when he speaks.

So I now have fresh new leather in my back-right pocket. I like my new wallet just fine, but I'm not yet used to it. It feels funny to pull out, looks odd sitting on my dresser at night, and doesn't know my pants pockets and feel of my hand like my other wallet did. I can't open it as fast and still don't know where all the cards and pockets are that I used to reach for so easily. Perhaps we'll get to know each other in these next few weeks, months, and years, and perhaps it too will become a steady companion in my daily rutine in getting ready each day. I get showered, dressed, and then I reach for my watch and wallet.

I threw out my old wallet. For a few days, I had it sitting on the dresser, but Joy thought that was odd, and I didn't quite know what else to do but throw it away. It served well. It was perhaps a little too willing to open up during my youth, but it was also there as I learned how to budget and even save. It is with sadness I leave that old wallet behind, but with eagerness I pick up that new rectangular piece of leather. Inded, there are new adventures ahead and new stories to tell.