MY FIVE POSSESSIONS

ONE This is a German Dagger from the Second World War. It was given to my father to dress up as a Roman Centurion when he was very little, the man who gave him it is long passed, but my Mam and I have still kept this hidden behind some sheets in the airing cupboard. I looked up the history of it to try and see if there was a value, it used to be a regular German Navel Dagger, but the top of it was cut off and the Swastika was screwed onto the top. I would for it to be valued one day.

 

TWO My Nan's ring. At her funeral, the women of the family were allowed in her bedroom to take a piece of her jewellery. The ring doesn't fit, and it's not something I would ever wear because of the sentimental value. I think it's one of the most beautiful things that I own and it means a ridiculous amount to me. I hope that one day I mean as much to a lot of people as my Nan did.

 

THREE A cheque for one billion pounds from someone I was friends with in college. We don't speak anymore, but I am planning on living until the 18th of December 2099 so I can cash it and live the rest of my life in complete and utter luxury. I will be 110 years old.

 

FOUR A hat that Irene made for me. Irene was a little old lady living next to my Nan, she didn't have any children of her own so took it upon herself to "adopt" me as a grandchild. I would visit her and her sausage dog Lucy and she would get me presents. For my eighteenth birthday she bought me a small leather camel decorated with red felt. I still have that as well. While I was studying abroad in America she learned that it was very cold in South Dakota so took it upon herself to make me a hat. This is the hat. It didn't fit at cut off the circulation around my head. This photo was me showing my mother on webcam. We were both crying in hysterical laughter, I loved Irene to bits, she meant so well and it was always very much appreciated. FIVE You've had the shittiest day. Why must people insist on getting their children baked beans if all they're going to do is throw them on the floor for you to clean up? They must think now and again about how hard done by waiting staff are. Not ever waiting staff. You are the Summer Staff . With a fifteen minute break on a full day, a day of cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. You hate this job but need it, of course you do. Saving money and waiting for a real job to come around the corner. You waste a sweltering hot summer by standing serving ice-cream and telling children off for climbing on the dinosaurs. You waste a sweltering hot summer in the steamed kitchens, the moisture clinging to you as you accidentally spray yourself with boiling hot washing up water over yourself for the hundredth time. You waste a sweltering hot summer by watching other people waste it by being at Wookey Hole Caves. This day you've done all these three things and now you're onto cleaning the ballroom-come-restaurant. Beans. Beans everywhere. As you're on your knees after a toddler has spilled orange juice all over the floor, you wipe your brow, only to wipe it with the dirty dish rag you've been using to clean dirt on all the tables. A brown, disgusting smudge over a face of contempt. You really hate this job. Then all of a sudden, a tap on your shoulder. You turn around, and a young girl, dressed in pale green with brown bunches in scrunchies is standing beside you. You expect she's going to tell you she just dropped her dinner on the clown or something, but she hands you a card. A pink card with blue italic writing on it "The money which comes your way you spend wisely, although some may not think so. We cannot all have immense wealth and this does not always bring happiness. A kind person like yourself has true friends. The smiles on the faces of loved ones is ample reward for a few pennies well spent." She probably didn't even realise how much that meant to you, and how you still have that card blu-tacked to your mirror and you look at it every day, as you now step out to a job that you actually don't mind. Probably because it doesn't include anything to do with beans.

These possessions are in no order of importance. It would take me forever to decide, and then I'd change my mind again.