Serendipity

I do and I am not sorry. I think it’s the most classy, stylish brand ever. I only discovered it recently, like 6 years ago. And I loved their pattern, their logo, their commercials. I think ‘obsessed’ is the word…

But I was in highschool and I do not come from a rich family. So I had no chance in having a Burberry item of mine.

The year that I graduated from highschool and went to university was the year that I thought I deserved a Burberry thing, even if it was the smallest keyring. So I was in Zurich on vacation with my mother and her husband and I wanted to go into the Burberry shop. There, I honestly got lost in all the items they had. From a keyring I asked to see a wallet and my mother was encouraging me – ‘Let’s see that one, but what do you think about the other one, etc’. At some point, I brought my feet to Earth and started looking at the prices too, not just the items. It was far from what I had planned to spend, my well-earned money.

That was the moment that my mother took one of the wallets, the one that I liked best, and told the girl working there to wrap it as a present. Honestly, I was stunned, words can’t even describe the feeling… I started stutter and my face turned red, I couldn’t breathe and I almost started crying. My mum then hugged me and told me that I deserved it, because of the fact that I managed to graduate highschool on my own (she was out of the country for the last two years) and to get into university all by myself. I think that was one of the few moments she told me she was proud of me.

The girl working in the store asked if I was a only child and since I couldn’t talk, my mum told her that I was. The girl then smiled and said that it’s obvious. She made an art of wrapping my wallet as a present. I loved it. The next days I would unwrap it gently, not to get anything torn or damaged. I would just take the wallet out from the wrapping, look at it, touch it, smell it, and then I would put it back, just the way it was.

I still kept the wrapping, just the way it was back then, 4 years ago. Even the seal is intact.

I unwrapped it and used it in my first day of university. I felt proud! Oh, and P.S.: I still have it and love it!

Now, I know this may not seem like a big deal. There are people who receive this kind of present for getting a good grade only.

I can’t be a hypocrite and say it wasn’t about the Burberry wallet, of course it was. But most of all, this memory is about a great wish of mine that I couldn’t have made real at that point, all on my own, with my own money. And it was an even greater surprise given the fact that I didn’t know about it, it wasn’t planned, my mum just saw the spark in my eyes looking at the wallets, and the sadness that I couldn’t afford one.

I think this is the biggest surprise and the nicest present I ever received. This one or another – when my mum was having a business trip to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and she bought a plan ticket for me to join her. I can’t decide yet… Hmm.