Luceo Magazine

One Ring to Wow Them

Chad Lennon
November 2003
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About 25 years ago, a friend of my dad broke up with his fiancée and after they parted, he didn’t want the engagement ring she had given him. Thus, it ended up in the hands of my dad. This ring sat around in my mom’s jewelry box for some 17 years until one day I happened upon it at the age of 15. After that day, my life was never the same.

I put the ring on and it fit only on my right middle finger because I am what you might say, lithe, or others would say anorexic. The gold ring has a square setting where a small diamond sits perched in the center and two small “flakes” of diamonds are embedded into the side. While this may not sound very spectacular, I assure you that it is, at least that is what everyone who sees it seems to think. Everyone who has spotted my ring thinks it is unique and is quite amazed at it, which of course means that I have to take it off frequently to give him a better look.

While many of my ring’s admirers are content to marvel in wonder at it, one particular young man back in my freshman high school geography class had something else in mind. Upon spotting my ring, this guy who I can describe only as being some sort of thug, offered to buy my ring from me. While already quite endowed with the “bling-bling,” he was particularly enamored with my ring and offered to buy it from me for something to the tune of $250 cash, which he had on his person. This disturbed me more than a little and had I taken him up on his offer, I would no doubt have to brush the traces of crack off the bills. Needless to say, I politely turned down his offer and chose to move to another seat in the class the following day.

A few years later graduation was abound and anyone who saw my ring for some reason felt compelled to ask me if it was a “class ring.” If you have seen a class ring, you know they are invariably gaudy, oversized pieces of jewelry with large and not to mention tacky “semi-precious” stones. My ring is nothing of this nature. To this day, some people still think it is a class ring, but not quite as many. Another problem that comes with the ring is that people will just grab my hand to look at it, even people I have never before met in my life. It’s absurd. No matter how fascinating something may be you should never just grab people; that’s what old people do. (Side note: I am not sure if this ever happens to you but the elderly tend to grab your arm when they are talking to you, which is just weird.) Remember these things: you wouldn’t want anyone grabbing your necklace and choking you, would you?

Little did I know seven years ago when I put on the strange ring I found in that jewelry box that it would provide so much unwarranted attention. While it tends to get annoying, the thing has now molded to my finger and I can only barely squeeze it off so I guess I will deal with it for years to come.

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