My Suitcase

This past summer I went to the American Library Association Annual Conference and one of the speakers was Jamie Lee Curtis. She talked about how immigrants could often only bring 1 suitcase of belongings with them when moving to a new country, and talked about what she would put in her suitcase. To help kids understand this, she wrote a book about it. Here's a lovely article about that book. I thought that this was a really cool resource to be able to share with kids, and it made me think about what I might put in my suitcase.

So, besides bringing my computer (because useful + music & pictures), passports, and yellow cards, I would bring..

• My doll Heart that my mom made for me
• My concert tickets & festival wristbands
• My earring collection
• My trumpet
• My music box that plays "Here, There, and Everywhere"
• My state ring (FMBC 2011), emerald ring (birthstone), & the jade rings my mom made me
• The postcards people have sent me from different countries
• All the letters Ida has sent me
• My iPod classic 
• The letters & notes my parents wrote about for me when I was born
• All my library cards (between Arizona, Florida, & Denmark I think I have about 6)
• My ALA Conference badge (I'm a nerd about libraries)
• My smashed pennies
• The Arizona license plate that says 96GATOR (because that's me!)
• All my signed Percy Jackson books (and more of my Rick Riordan books if I could fit them)
• My heart shaped himalayan salt stones (and the rest of the stones and lamp if they'd fit)
• And if I had any room, or needing more cushioning, I would put in as many of concert/festival t-shirts as I could get in there

I don't want to make light of the experience of having to immigrate and only having a suitcase, but I think it's a wonderful story to share with others (and totally get it from the library to share if you have kids!) and I wanted to share what items are meaningful to me. What would be in your suitcase?

-See ya