Cozmopolitan Sunkyoung

One of the things I wanted to buy with my first full paycheque was a new purse. I’d been using the purse on the left since 1999. As seen in the photo, a decade had turned many parts of the purse worn-out, torn and fallen. A couple of friends even said how a lady could carry that kinda looking purse.

I had my own reasons to want to keep it with me for that long time. First, if I ever change my purse, I wanted it to be given from my boyfriend. Unlike my wish, however, when my purse was starting to get significantly worn out, I didn’t have a boyfriend, or even when I had one or two, the situation was like either the relationship was not long enough to commit themselves to buying a purse for me, or they were just indifferent to girls’ stuff.

The other reason was I couldn’t simply throw away the purse because it had been always with me even after two incidents where I was almost about to lose it. Probably in 2000, I left my purse on my seat of the bus from Seoul to Suwon, and a girl sitting next to me was so kind that she picked it up when she took off the bus and returned it to me the next day. Later in 2004, I left my purse on the locker in the library, and somebody found it and passed it to the security staff.

However, I started to change my mind in late 2008 as the bottom part of the purse where contains coins was already more than half a way torn. I thought I couldn’t wait longer until I have a new boyfriend. Also, I wanted to be a little bit more independent. It is me who makes money for myself so why not buy me a basic container of the money? So, finally I bought a nice purse at the airport duty free shop in Bangkok when I first went there earlier this month. I had wanted my new purse to be men’s as it’s much slimer than women’s.

Another story about a purse: when I met my friend, Junsu, back in September 2008, I noticed his new purse. And he said his lack of knowledge about brands was almost to make his girlfriend mad. She bought this purse for him at a Salvatore Ferragamo shop when she had an overseas flight. But, when he first saw the purse, he thought she’d got it as a freebie from Nonghyup (banking service of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in Korea) as its logo seemed to him similar to Salvatore Ferragamo’s.

There are a couple of things I have had with me for more than 10 years and another thing is a nail clipper that my dad bought for me when I went to university in 1997. Since then, it has travelled with me to many different places in the world. Unless the cutting part becomes dull, I think I’ll keep it for another decade.