History of My Life in 4 Objects

CHILDHOOD:

This was my favourite toy for the first four or five years of my life. He was imaginatively named, 'Panda'. and is now very scraggy with a squashed nose.

He was made in China the year I was born and retailed by Marks and Spencers. 

The origin of the Teddy Bear comes from Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. The popular story goes that that he was out hunting but became impatient and headed back to camp.  His hosts went out and caught him a bear as a gesture to impress him but Roosevelt refused to shoot it because it was tied up. Journalists who were there made it into a national news story, accompanied by a satirical cartoon. Within a year the story and cartoon materialised into a toy bear for children and teddy bear has since become a childhood icon in for the a century.

EARLY TEENAGE:

This is a locket I was given the day my sister was born. I lost it for a while but found it again when I was in my early teens.

There are no manufactured markings on it, but it was bought from a jewelry shop in my town. 

The actual origin of the locket is unknown but they became very popular in the Victorian era.  They were often used as a way of remembering someone who had recently died or as a symbol of love for someone, sometimes containing a lock of hair or a photo of a loved one.

LATE TEENAGE:

This is a memento I bought on my first holiday on my own with friends.
I've since tried to buy an equally tacky object each time I visit a new new city abroad. I have a blue glittery colluseum to go with it.
I picked it because

Surprisingly it doesn't say where it is made. I bought it from one of the many tourist shops selling all the same products.








I realised one object is meant to be an image, so here's one from the same time. It was taken by my friend on a Diana Camera. I only just recently saw it. I like that it has been made using a proper film camera and can't be easily reproduced and that it is a physical object.
It's from Bastille Day, watching the fireworks next to the river and drinking cheap beer.













PRESENT:

Finally, this probably sums up my present.
It's a sketchbook from the past summer and my present and it generally goes with me everywhere.

Moleskine is apparently a successor to the notebooks used by legendary artists and writers of the last two centuries including Van Gogh and Picasso. It uses this as a selling point as a status symbol to people who consider themselves culturally aware and creative.