This really resonated with me, but probably not the way you think. The only time in my life that I was ever truly disappointed in not receiving something special....something at all actually was someone I thought was a friend. We grew up together. Our birthdays are about 6 months apart and we both had special ones coming up. I had actuality bought her gift and put it away over 2 years before this special occasion. On my special occasion 6 months earlier, she walked through my front door of my apartment, very fast, didn't look at me, handed me some old flowers that looked almost dead, turned to me and said..."you don't need anything...what are we having for dinner, I can't stay long.." and my eyes filled up and I walked into my bathroom to get myself together. I had known the friendship had shifted a few years prior, but this solidified it. As you said, it had nothing to do with the price tag or anything like that at all...she knew that this was a milestone. She also knew I had recently lost my Mom and I had no family. She was it...or so I thought. I once thought of her as a sister. I only told one person about that night. They told me to sell the necklace I had made for her, but I couldn't do it. Six months later came her 'milestone' and instead of being cold or bitter, I gave her the gift I had been saving for over 2 years. She didn't smile or get excited. She said "thank you" under her breath. That was the beginning of the end...the end of a friendship I was certain would last a lifetime. Maybe I had been extremely lucky throughout my life? Maybe naive? All I know..I really loved her, and wanted to make her happy. It is the little things. Little gifts. Big gestures. Getting excited together. Showing one another how much you care. It isn't about mink coats and yachts. She gave all her other friends gifts, but not me. That was her way of telling me without words she didn't love me anymore. Maybe she never did, that's what a few wise friends believe. But I do not regret giving her that special necklace I had made for our special occasion. I'll always wonder though if she looks at it while she's wearing it every once and a while and realizes what it symbolized, or if it is merely just a 'thing,' I suppose I'll never know. Thank you for writing that. It meant more than you know.