For Isabella Tarlach ‘21, her rings, ranging from a simple band to an ornamented gem-stone, remind her of home. Her mom, with whom Tarlach also shares a tattoo of a sprig of lavender, gave her the rings. Tarlach told the Record that the tattoo and the rings symbolize their mother-daughter bond. “They are a way for me to stay close with my mom even though we aren’t together. It’s nice to have something she gave me so I know that she is always a phone call away and is always there to help me when I need it.”
By Maddie Cash
Freshman Erin Rhodes, clad in her Highland Retreat sweatshirt, shared the memories that cling to this seemingly simple article of clothing. The camp is nestled in her Virginian hometown, and she attended it every summer growing up. After high school, she brought the sweatshirt along with her to a gap year in Pennsylvania. During her time serving at the Pennsylvanian farm, she lived with six friends who are now scattered all over the country and the world. “ has memories from every home I’ve ever had,” Rhodes said. Now, she wears her sweatshirt at Wheaton as she lives alongside new friends and uncovers new adventures. They are stitching new memories into a sweatshirt made of fragments of the homes she lived in over the years.
By Giselle Gaytan
Junior Emily Barbosa grew up in Phoenix, Arizona with not just a loving grandmother, but a loving great-grandmother as well. In addition to great memories of time spent with her great-grandmother, Barbosa also received several pieces of her jewelry. Barbosa inherited her great-grandmother’s love for jewelry, making the pieces she received from her great-grandmother all the more valuable to her. “Almost every time ,” Barbosa said, “she’d bring me over to her chest in her room … and she would bring out all this perfectly organized jewelry and ask me to pick out pieces, just whatever I want.”
By Liv Ade
It’s been more than six years since junior Abi Conway has removed the bracelet on her left wrist. A simple silver cuff she purchased in Thailand, the bracelet is more than a token from a trip. “Before this trip I had really struggled with an eating disorder, and I never really shared it with anyone,” Conway said. “Thailand was the first time people talked about what they were struggling with, things I wouldn’t have a Christian girl would do.” Their openness led to Conway’s own vulnerability and her decision to give her life to Christ. “The bracelet is a constant reminder of God’s grace in my own life and how he broke the chains of shame — and also to remind me to be vulnerable and real with people and to remind myself that everyone is struggling with their own thing.”
By Victoria Greenwald
“This hat is like a lost lamb that keeps coming back to me,” said junior Eric Hoskins about his purple knit hat. Originally given to him by a Passage friend as a Christmas gift during his freshman year, this hat has become a trusty identifier of Hoskins to many across campus, which is helpful, because Hoskins has lost the hat an innumerable amount of times. “Sometimes I’ll find it in the lost and found, and one time an acquaintance found it … and was able to get it back to me.” Of the many notable recoveries of this hat over the last two years, one instance stands out — “I lost it at the end of the semester once, over a whole break, and the trail went cold; I assumed I had lost it forever. But, when I came back from break I found it in the Co-op, and I was like, ‘The Lord hath provided a ram in the thicket!’ And I took it, and I still have it.”
By Victoria Greenwald