Thursday, November 15, 2007

Engagement Ring Envy

Normally, I'm pretty content being single. Well, I'm dating again, as you know, but single as in not married. However, occasionally, I see a married friend & have a slight pang of "when will that happen for me?"

Today, one of the undergrads in one of my classes was sporting a brand-new ring. She's probably around 21, you guys. She's a pretty girl, but not a traffic-stopper. Today, however, she was glowing. And you should have seen the ring! Not huge, but sparkly & bright & glowing right along with her. I had to force myself to stop looking at it & pay attention to the professor.

An engagement ring is so significant. I used to wear rings, but I fell out of the habit a year or two ago. I couldn't help but think about how a ring like that might look on my own hand. Sigh. As I said, I'm very happy being unmarried & accountable to no one else. I can sleep late if I want, stay out all night if I want, hog the covers if I want. Sometimes, though, I get a bit wistful.

6 comments:

Sarah said...

I got an engagement ring about 5 days before we married, as we decided to get married while we were still long-distance. An important part to our relationship is making our own traditions:)

Sarah said...

Well Stacey next time you see an engagement ring just think "that's probably a blood diamond" and then you will feel better.

HA i am terrible I know :-)

Anonymous said...

21? $20 they don't even go through with it.


And go buy yourself a right hand ring. Seriously. They're significant for a whole bunch of reasons. And for ones that are more important than those "left hand" ones anyway.

kate.d. said...

i am pretty fascinated by how engagement rings have this, like, hypnotic power over people (like you mentioned, not being able to look away from it, etc). it's so strange, the way we've crammed all these disparate assocations and projections into a certain stone in a solitare setting and imbued it with this power - i mean, can it make you leap tall buildings in a single bound? read minds? does it do anything to you, really?

no.

and yet people find themselves longing to possess a *thing*, not for it's uniqueness but i guess for what it says about the person who possesses it?

eesh. i dunno. as you can tell, this really does intrigue me.

Stacey said...

All excellent points, ladies. They do have an impractical appeal, Kate, and I think your curiosity is well placed.

The funny thing is, I don't even want the traditional diamond solitaire for my own. I'd much rather a sapphire. And you can bet I'll buy my fiance something to show that he's engaged, too! ;)

Anonymous said...

Stacey,
Don't worry about not having a ring. I still love you. And you can borrow mine any time you want! :)
~Erin~