SHE'S GOT ROCKS IN HER PURSE

I used to put actual rocks in my mother’s purses when I played pretend office executive as a kid. Don’t judge – I also embraced the roles of an ER doctor (my poor Barbie dolls), Miss Piggy, a chef, and Laura from Little House on the Prairie – my personal fave.

My name was always changed to “Nancy” when I was the boss-lady of an office. Nancy had an extremely important job – entering random numbers on an adding machine, eating cookies, making urgent calls, and sharpening pencils. This was the real deal so I needed a purse that felt just as authentic – after all, I had just worked my way up from secretary to the queen of the office by beating my friend in rock-paper-scissors. I was a girl who knew what she wanted and it was Nutter Butters, sharp pencil points, and a weighed-down pocketbook.

Of course, this was all just for fun. Eventually my mother would make me empty her purse of rubble and crumbs and she would refill it with real grown-up stuff like lipstick, a compact, and an embroidered hankie. Funny though, now that I’m all grown up I feel as though I have rocks in my own purse sometimes - like one of these days, someone will point at me and say, “HA-HA – I always knew you were a poser. Hand over the purse rocks and no one will get hurt.”

It is on these days that I remind myself that it wasn’t a best-out-of-three game of rock-paper-scissors that got me to where I am today. I don’t need to weigh my bag down with props or make my friends call me, “Nancy” (though it is a lovely, underused name) to feel like I’ve made it. I work hard, I give back, and I carry on – with a purse that’s sometimes filled with Nutter Butters… not rocks.