Did you buy one? Do you still have it? Do you still wear it?
I bought one freshman year of high school. Good old Jostens. Big and clunky, fake red “gem,” with the school mascot (the Knights) on one side and a lyre representing music on the other (I was in choir). As near as I can remember I bought it for the same reason I bought stuff like Knights pins and went to a few of the football games, because that’s the sort of thing one is supposed to do in high school. Wore it for a couple of years then stopped because of my overwhelming hatred of high school and all things associated with it.
It went into a box with some other old jewelry I stopped wearing, and got thrown out as part of a mass purge of my belongings that took place a little over ten years ago.
If you have kids in high school, are class rings considered in any way cool?
I bought mine my junior year. It’s gold with a blue spinel and the name of my school around the stone, and my graduation year separated on each side, with a little zirconia. I don’t really wear it anymore, but I’m kinda proud of it, as it was the first big purchase I ever made with money I earned myself.
I would have liked to have gotten a college ring, but I just couldn’t afford it.
I bought mine my graduating year. Not out of any school pride, I just thought they looked so damn cool. I didn’t get one of those delicate, “feminine” rings my female classmates were ordering, either. I wanted one of those big ones with the big honking “gem” in the middle of it.
Mine is black and silver-colored (lustrium, or something, I think? It was all I could afford, since I had to buy it with my own money). It has my birthstone as the gem, which is a fake purple/green/gray/aqua/root beer coloured (depending on the light) alexandrite. (real alexandrite is too soft).
It has my high school name, year I graduated, and because I didn’t want to admit to anybody that I was the assistant coach of the cheerleading squad, and I was being pressured to pick something (last day for orders, I was already late for class, and there were 20 people lined up behind me), I picked my zodiac sign symbol, Gemini. The other side has the school symbol (a boat). My initials are inside the band.
I don’t wear it anymore… it seems a little weird to me. I’m 27 years old, 3000 miles away from the school I went to, and it’s not like anybody would recognise what school it’s from. It kind of makes me wonder why I bought it. Oh, yeah. Because I wanted one, and that was all that mattered at the time.
I haven’t bought a class ring yet because I am still in high school, but when I get a chance, I think I will buy one. I have not always agreed with school policies and whatnot, but I don’t remember having as much fun before in school as I have in the last few years.
One year the student council took the whole school to see LOTR: ROTK! Rock on! I suppose that tells you something about the size of my school.
I didn’t get one because I didn’t identify with my high school, and it wasn’t even an issue in college. I personally can think of better reasons for wearing a ring (such as marriage), but if you really like your high school, why not?
I really don’t care one way or the other, but I always thought Jostens was kind of a rip off. One of my teachers said, “Yes, but for someone who doesn’t go to college, it’s a reasonable luxury.” I have to say, he had a good point.
I have one. I wear it all the time, on my thumb. Of course, I just graduated this past May. It doesn’t look like a class ring. Here is a picture of the kind I go. It has a book and torch for academics on one side, a palatte and paintbrushes on the other, “05” and “LCP” on either side of the stones (my graduation year and school initials) and a red stone (my birthstone) and a blue stone (school colors) and my signature engraved inside. I like it, although I can’t imagine I’d wear it forever.
I got one while in high school. I got a black onyx stone because it was unique…until a classmate saw it and just had to have a black onyx in hers too. Grrrrrrrrrr.
I was forbidden to give it to my boyfriend but I had his when we were having sex and smoking pot, errrr, “going together”.
I wore my highschool boyfriend’s on a chain around my neck, circa '97.
I don’t have one as I never graduated from highschool, and I didn’t really want one to commemorate my AA degree (woohoo, a glorified diploma!). I may get one when I finish my bachelor’s though.
My high school ring is huge. I have big hands and long fingers and either of the two “girly” styled sizes would have looked ridiculous on me. Thank Og for the “co-ed” style. I don’t wear it anymore, but I wore it constantly from the day I received it to about age twenty, which is more use than most people I knew got out of theirs. I don’t plan to buy a college ring. I thought of getting one that isn’t in a classic style–one of the fashion ones perhaps–but then reasoned that if I wanted that, I could get one from a jewelry store that was prettier and probably cheaper.
When my parents were dating, Dad wore Mom’s class ring on his little finger. He left it in a gas station bathroom and she’s still never forgiven him for losing it.
I have a class ring from Grade 12, along with a few other grad items. Like the OP, I bought them because I felt like I should (The ring doesn’t quite fit, I tend to buy my rings too big because I hate having to work at getting them off. Consequently, I rarely wear it). The ring is silver with a fake ruby–it has a starburst pattern cut into the underside. It’s not clunky, I went away from the traditional style to something a bit more dainty. Oddly enough, I chose it because that was what I wanted, yet it somehow ended up matching my school colours–red and grey.
I also have a hoodie from my first year of university. Although I like uni a LOT more than high school, I’ll wear my high school one before my uni one–I think I just like the style better. Actually, I probably wouldn’t have bought one my freshman year, but my parents heard about it and gave me money to buy one. So I did.
That’s another reason, besides the ugliness: I have really tiny hands with wee little stubby fingers (as seen here). They’re so short that I can’t wear opaque nail polish without looking like some sort of mutant. All rings look kind of weird, let alone some chunky abomination.
I thought the ones in high school were hideous. They had to be gold (blech) and they had to have a green stone (again, blech). Good thing I didn’t get one. I never graduated.
I have a college one. I went back and forth on whether I was going to get one for awhile. It was too expensive (500 dollars) for any with a side panel with my major, and only one of the girl’s rings had chemistry as a choice. At my senior brunch, two weeks before graduation, they had updated their selection. I could get one in celestrium or whatever they’re call stainless steel today with a blue firebrand (spinel), a chemistry side panel, and my name engraved in it for 250. My mom actually bought it, as it was supposed to be an 18th birthday present.
I wear it everyday. It’s a little big as I wear it on my left hand, because I wear my claddagh on my right ring finger. I got into a disagreement with the ring guy about this, actually. He was trying to explain to me that women wore class rings on their right hands, not wanting to say that was so they could wear wedding rings on their left. Ah well.
I don’t know any couples that have switched rings. I have no idea if my boyfriend owns a class ring, but I kind of doubt it.
I got mine my sophmore year, I believe. I didn’t really like my ring, the stone was neither my birth stone nor a school color. The band was clunky, even for a girl’s ring. At the time it was pretty important to have one whether I liked it or not. Whenever I try it on, it feels as good as it does bad to see how it’s too big now. In the end, it would have been much wiser to use the money to buy a nice pair of pearl earrings. At least I didn’t buy a letterman’s jacket.
I have one that I don’t wear because my mom convinced me that I would prefer the yellow gold as I got older, so we got that instead of white gold. I still hate yellow gold, so I still don’t wear the ring. I’ve considered having it plated with white gold, but haven’t really felt a huge need to do so, as I don’t plan on wearing it on a daily basis or anything.