Becoming A Phoenix

I am the first person in my family to study abroad and the first generation to attend college; when I bid farewell to my grandfather, he told me to become "a golden phoenix flying out of a cottage," to achieve greatness regardless of my initial poverty. 

Phoenix means good fortune, auspiciousness, and of course, power in Chinese. In ancient China, people used dragon to represent the emperor and the phoenix to represent the queen. In a more general sense, phoenix means a kind of rebirth (just like the American meaning), rising to a higher stage, and prosperity. 

Mysteriously, I do have some weird with the phoenix. My animal sign is rooster, and when I was little, a friend of my mom corrected me when I told her that I'm a rooster, "No, you should say that you are a phoenix," she turned to my mom, "Your daughter is a phoenix."

Since then my whole family started to use "phoenix" to encourage me to make progress. While I was doing my college application, my parents were searching for a phoenix jewelry as a gift for my future acceptance in college. However, I was the one who actually got that phoenix necklace by accidence.

I was hanging out in my favorite store, Michael's, one day and I saw a metal phoenix pendant which I immediately fell in love with. I found a ribbon to go along with it and bought it simply because I thought the gesture of the phoenix was very hopeful and it just had this indescribable power to grab me. 

So here is the phoenix necklace. After composing it, I found it looks awfully like an Olympic metal, which I totally did not think of when I chose that white ribbon. 

I put this necklace away and decided to wear it the day after I came back from Spring Break, which happened to be the date I got all my college results. The phoenix necklace became a symbol for my striving for perfection in senior year; I wanted to wear it proudly on April 2nd, and to declare my rebirth just like a phoenix rising from ashes. 

I did it. And oddly enough, University of Chicago, the college that I'm so honored to be accepted, uses phoenix as its symbol, too! Sometimes I wonder if it is really my "fate" to attend UChicago......

Anyway, these mysterious connections I have with phoenix drive me crazy and I can't stop thinking about it. :D I hope you like my necklace!

April 2nd!!!!! I have been waiting for this day for two months!