If you’re a Parks and Recreation fan like I am, you recognize the title of this post. I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while, but I’ve been struggling with how to write about it without coming across as braggy. Talking about buying things is always a fine line between being excited about things and wanting to share them with everyone, and seeming like I’m just showing off. But sometimes when I’m sharing things that I’ve bought, it’s about more that just the thing itself – it’s about the memories behind it.

I’ve written here before about having to get a feeding tube after I lost a lot of weight and couldn’t gain it back. And I think I touched a little bit on how I tried everything else that I could before I accepted that I needed it, but it’s hard to explain how badly I did not want it. The thought of getting a feeding tube made me want to cry (to be fair, almost everything related to the weight problems I had then made me want to cry), and I really, really tried to do every single other alternative first. It took a lot, mentally, for me to accept that I had to get over my fears and schedule the surgery. Looking back years later, I wish I had faced those fears earlier and saved myself a lot of time of feeling really horribly – the feeding tube improved my life drastically, and really, really quickly.

When everything was over, I bought myself a sapphire ring that I wear every day (to this day! You can spot it in basically every single picture of me that I post) to remind me of not only went through, but what I was able to overcome.

So when 2018 ended, I knew that I wanted to get myself something to commemorate all of the exciting things that happened during the year. I’ve always been a handbag person – it can be hard for me to find shoes and clothes that fit, but I don’t have to worry about sizing with bags! I searched for quite a while, and finally decided on this bag (I got it slightly on sale – you can still get it at that price in this pink/red color combination). I love the black and tan color combination, and how timeless the style is. Just like the sapphire ring, this is something that I’ll be able to use for years to come.