All my life growing up, almost everyone in my family had these gold pendants. Each pendant was different and I was always amazed by each and every one of them. There were pendants of dragons, letters to represent your first name initial,  flowers. There were so many that what I listed were just one of the very few. As I got older, I never had one of these specific pendants and I questioned, “Why?” I was given many pieces of jewelry, but never a pendant. I sulked about it, but eventually got over it. My family came from both Cambodia and Thailand. Both countries had always admired the beauty of owning any sorts of jewelry because of what has happened in the past. Any sort of gold jewelry was a symbol of the richness of our culture and our beauty. I turned 16 in 2020. I had gone over to my Grandmother’s house just for a little visit. She then walked behind me and gave me my own gold pendant that I had been longing for my whole life. My version of the pendant is heart shaped. In the middle there is a 5 petal flower with little beads. Surrounding the flower are diamond shaped pieces creating texture. On the outer side of the heart were loops overlapping each other. In some ways, I believe that for my grandma, giving me this pendant means that I’m growing up and slowly becoming an adult and so that’s why it took so long.  I will never take off this pendant as it represents my culture and myself so much. It was the best thing I could ever really ask for.    

– AY

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant