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It seems another great piece of Ricky memorabilla has finished its tour of duty and will eventually find its way into a museum somewhere.
I got a new belt.
While that may not seem like something worth writing about, you should know an important fact. My previous belt was bought during middle school.
I'm not exactly sure what year I got it, but it was definitely during middle school. I know this because when I bought it, it was ridiculously too big for me. For those of you who don't remember, in middle school, at least at Pizitz, the big thing was those braided leather belts, wrapped around some weird way to where the end actually hangs down. I'm pretty sure it was 8th grade when I got it, because I was usually a year or two behind what everyone else was wearing.
I'm not exactly sure what size it was, but as I got older and my waist grew, it began to fit me like a normal belt. The weird hanging down belt faze ended, but the popularity of the braided leather belts has never really gone away. Never being one to get rid of a perfectly good belt, I kept wearing it. And wearing it. And wearing it.
I don't want to make it seem like I suffered through high school and college with an old, dilapidated belt. I'm sure my parents would have gotten me one if I wanted a new one. But I just didn't need or want a new one. The belt stayed in great shape all the way through both. I never owned any black pants, so I never really needed any other color belt (until I got my suits, which have their own belt).
It makes me smile to think about everything I've been through with that belt. One can pretty safely say that anything during high school or college that occured while I had a tucked in shirt, that belt was there. Literally. Countless dates, choir tours, most every day of high school, pretty much every Sunday of church, my summer at Chili's, every day of work at ACIPCO, my honeymoon...the list could go on for hours.
Anyhow, at some point in the last year or so, a few of the braids on the end of the belt started coming loose from the tip. As soon as this happened, I knew it was the beginning of the end. Over the course of a few months, all but like two of the strands of leather separated from the tip, meaning there were loose strands just hanging there. Tammy finally convinced me that its time had come. So I got a new belt a week or two ago.
My old belt is currently still hanging in my closet, wondering why I haven't worn it in a few weeks. I guess I just can't bear to throw it away, as getting rid of it is sort of like losing yet another piece of my teenage years. Maybe it's kind of like the Velvateen Rabbit, and after years of serving me so well, it's going to become...ummm...a...ummm...real belt? Okay, so scratch that idea. But it's definitely the longest-lingering piece of clothing that I have. After all, anything else would have long since been outgrown.
I wonder what all adventures this new belt will see me through.