All Four Leaves · Royal Clover Drop Earrings

The Story Behind

The hardest part of her master's degree in England wasn't the coursework. It was Christmas. Her housemates all went home. The dorm was empty. The heating was broken. She ordered fried chicken and sat by the window eating it alone, watching the particular kind of thin, freezing English rain come down. Her mum video-called. ""How are you doing?"" ""I'm fine,"" she said. After she hung up, she wrote in her diary: I'm not. But I don't want her to worry. Second Christmas — she didn't go back. Third year — she got the offer. She stayed in London. Sometimes colleagues ask: ""Isn't it lonely, being here on your own?"" She considers it. ""Loneliness becomes its own kind of company,"" she says. ""You get used to it."" Nobody knows that on that first Christmas night, she sat there eating fried chicken alone until she'd eaten herself into the courage to stay. Four leaves for luck — but we're more interested in the person willing to endure a long winter alone just to get there. These earrings are for everyone who is far from home.