My Wallet

I sat down this afternoon with my wallet, and for the first time, I really looked at it. In the past, I ignored my wallet when I needed it only grabbing from it the things that I needed at the moment. Attempting to look at the wallet as though I had never seen it before, I tried to imagine what image a stranger would create in response to the items of my wallet.

In a stranger’s thoughts:

The wallet is a women’s brown in color. It is worn and has a silver decorative piece on the front. This woman probably does not put the quality of a wallet on the top of her priority list. I would guess she does not buy new wallets very often. When I open the wallet the first thing I see is a checkbook. This woman still uses checks, which mean she hasn’t completely given in to technology.

The next thing I come to are the pictures. The very first picture is of two children; both children are probably under the age of six. The similarities in their features make me think that they are brother and sister. Many more pictures of these two children at different ages follow the first one. They are most likely this woman’s children. More pictures follow, a picture of a couple at their wedding, most likely her and her husband. Her age could be somewhere in her thirties or forties. There are some pictures of some other small children who bear no resemblance. They are probably nieces or a close friend’s children. Paging through the pictures I find an updated insurance card, which tells me she is not one of the many people who drive without insurance.

As I pass the pictures I come to her driver’s license and the section of the wallet that houses the plastic cards. Looking at the driver’s license I see that she is in her thirties. She lives in Arlington, and either grew up there or prefers to live in small communities.

This woman has a lot of cards in her wallet. Most of them she probably forgot were even there. There is a debit card and one credit card, she isn’t completely against having debt, but maybe a little scared to have too much. There are many different cards from Everett Community College, she might be a student. The presence of a CPR card gives me the idea that she could be a student in healthcare. A casino club card and a tattoo parlor card may indicate she likes a little adventure in her life. On the other hand a Costco card says she still has a family to take care of.

From what I see in this wallet, I would say this woman is an average married woman with kids.

My thoughts:

Looking at my wallet, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could really know my identity. Yes, it may tell someone that I’m married and have kids. It may give someone an idea of the things I like to do for fun. These things are only a small part of who I am. It doesn’t tell you that I’m a wonderful mother and wife. It doesn’t tell you that I love to be outdoors and crave the sunshine everyday! It doesn’t tell you that I grew up on the east coast and that I served time in the military. I could go on and on about the things my wallet doesn’t tell someone. I believe the contents of a wallet only scrape the surface of who we are.