I wear my engagement ring, my wedding ring, and on my right hand I wear my college class ring and a ring given to me almost ten years ago. It was the taking off of this ring that made me realize just how quickly time is passing by.
The ring of which I speak is 10K gold (my preference in gold, since I tend to be really hard on my rings and anything of higher quality is just too soft) with a large red glass stone set into it so that the stone is flush with the setting. It's actually a man's ring, but since my fingers are so very wide for a woman, I can wear it easily on my middle finger.
Almost ten years ago, I started high school at Bellevue West High School in Bellevue, Nebraska. I was very apprehensive going to this school, as it would be the second of three new schools I attended in as many years. Everyone I had known at my middle school was going to Bellevue East, which was really a blessing as I was not very well-liked at my middle school at all. So even though I was in the same school district two years in a row, it was like going to a whole new school. I knew two people going to my high school, neither of them very well (although, as I ended up dating both of them, I managed to get to know them a lot better *wink*).
As it turns out, I had very little to worry about. I remember it being a school like many others, with an in crowd and the rest of the nobodies lumped together into a group. But for some reason, it wasn't the in crowd that folks cared about. I think we had far too many nobodies in that school, to the point where we pretty much overwhelmed the in crowd, or maybe I was secure enough that I just didn't care about the in crowd. What I remember is the nobodies being the more important group. I can't even tell you the names of the in crowd at that school the way I can tell you the names of the in crowd at my second high school. They just weren't that important.
Fortunately, I was a nobody, and for the first time in my life I was popular. I had more friends than I knew what to do with, and I was on the telephone after school even more than my older sister had been at that age. I was constantly over at my friends' homes, and boys just seemed to be knocking down the door to be with me. I started out the year with a boyfriend from the summer, who got dumped (BY ME!!) within the first week of school. He was followed by four more boyfriends that year, but only the last one was serious and meant anything to me. But my summer boyfriend was the first boy I had ever kissed, and boy was it nice. :o)
In the midst of all this, I managed to catch the eye of a 19-year-old senior named MJ. I have no idea how this happened, or really even how we met. But I can remember cuddling up to him under his Chicago Bulls coat, inhaling the heavenly cologne he'd wear to school and wrapping my arms around his quite skinny figure. MJ had chorus the same period I had band, so pretty much the only time I would see him was before and after band. He'd write me notes, addressed to me using my family nickname, since I never could teach him how to spell "Karyl." I remember one time he kissed me after the halls had cleared of students (about the one and only time I was tardy to a class on purpose), and I nearly fainted.
At some point, MJ started letting me wear his class rings. He had two, having gone to another high school back on the East Coast for his junior year. His silver one, from his old high school, he'd let me take home with me, but his gold one, from our high school, I'd have to return before the end of the school day. I got so used to wearing his rings that when I didn't have one on, I felt kind of naked.
May came quickly to end my freshman year, and by this time I had been informed that we were moving back to Virginia and leaving my newfound popularity behind, since I was found to be rather odious at my new high school by my fellow classmates. I told MJ that I was moving in June, and to remember him by, he gave me a ring. Not one of his class rings that I had always worn, but a gold one with a large red stone. He never got any farther than kissing with me, so I'm not even sure why he gave me that ring. We never even officially dated.
I still wear the ring, less in remembrance of him and more for the fact that I just love the ring. The glass stone is getting somewhat chipped more and more as the years go by, and now it's loose in its setting. Sometimes I annoy Kurt by letting that ring rest on the stick shift of my car, causing the stone to rattle incessantly and make Kurt think there's something wrong with the car. I have gotten so many complements on that ring from all kinds of people, and it looks fantastic on my larger-than-average fingers.
It was good while it lasted... but I wouldn't change my husband for anyone in the world.
Well.... maybe Bret Boone of the Seattle Mariners could convince me... :o)