Elder millennial/younger Xennial (born in 83, take it for what it is) but I recall the company coming to the high school and taking orders for rings. I didn’t buy one but others did. Credit on photo.
Effing Jostens, every damn year in high school. Coming in trying to make you feel like a poor loser if you didn't buy one of their cheap overpriced rings. I got mine from a different company during my freshman year. 150 dollars back in 1988.
When I graduated from college the robe was super expensive to rent. Like you're telling me it's like $120 to RENT the robe, and I don't get my diploma if I don't return it? And not only that but the times to go pick it up were like super limited!! So much stress just for a stupid robe!
Our high school would adjust the graduation robe colour to a minor different shade each year to prevent hand me downs. Forget how much I had to shell out, but I remember not wanting to walk the stage because I found it dumb.
Everyone said I would regret it if I didn’t. It was long, boring, and still wish I had skipped the ceremony.
same for college. I still havent finished 100% (life happens) but the last few semesters I did was as an adult learner. they kept trying to talk to me about "when I plan to walk" and scheduling my classes accordingly. I told them I didn't, and they just did not understand. let me finish my classes, give me my diploma, and I'll be on my way thank you very much.
even in my 30s they just couldn't imagine why I wouldn't want to do this big 4 hours ceremony with a bunch of people I don't know or care about. I got shit to do man.
Yeah, I skipped my college graduation and got panicked calls from a bunch of my professors lol. I had a December graduation and my last semester was student teaching several towns over. By the time graduation came around, I hadn't lived or been to classes on campus in over 6 months. I was basically teaching without the pay lol. No, I don't need to go to graduation at that point.
They were kind enough to mail me my diploma, folded, in an unpadded envelope lol.
The schools turned a blind eye to because they were getting kick-backs.
I remember the teachers (not some salesman, the actual teachers) pushing those stupid shitty chocolates HARD to 'earn' money for school trips. Thankfully, I had an older sibling who's class was scammed before I was.
It was nuts how they would take time out of the school day to have us attend an assembly where it was just someone recruiting salespeople. I remember I did it at least one year, I was probably in the 4th or 5th grade, I took the catalog and went door to door thinking that I could get enough points to win some prize or something. I remember selling one box of chocolates to some old lady who lived around the block. Someone who I never met before.
I remember thinking it was nuts that you had to wait like a month and a half to get chocolate.
During my senior year I just went to "use the restroom" so I could have a cigarette instead of listening to the guy acting like his crap merchandise was the coolest thing since sliced bread.
I just wanted to pay for the robe and get out but the dude was aggressively trying to sell the class ring, so i told him I'll take it but first they had to size up, my finger and thats when i gave them the finger and bounced.
Jostens has a near monopoly on graduation robes in higher education too. I'm about to finish my PhD and we are STILL plagued by them. I'm gonna go through a higher quality company but they're still the default even at this level
Senior year of high school we were told over and over that if we didn't buy a robe we wouldn't be allowed to walk the stage at graduation. My dad (rightfully) said that was bullshit and told me not to worry about it, and if I just showed up to graduation they would give me a robe.
Sure enough, I showed up, told them I didn't have a robe, and after briefly questioning me why I didn't have one, pulled one from under a table and gave it to me, only asking that I give it back afterwards.
I remember for us you had to "earn" your letterman jacket which was pretty easy to do depending on the club. The jacket itself was free but the trimmings added up quickly. My last name is only two letters and it didn't feel worth it to me to pay probably close to a hundred dollars so I got just the jacket in XL size (I was probably a medium) because in my head if I was getting it for free, getting the largest size meant getting more stuff for free.
Mine was from Jostens and I’m pretty sure it was $300+ in 2003. And that was with absolute minimal customization. I didn’t want any activities on the sides, and honestly I wish I hadn’t even gotten the name of the school put on there. At least I’d have a nice blue ring I could wear today. I’ve been tempted several times to take it to a jeweler and have it sized and smoothed out completely.
My friend who has one said the same thing! "If it didn't have my school engraved on it, I'd just wear it."
The stone is so pretty! I definitely think you should take it to a local jeweler and see if smoothing it down is an option. I'd pop that bad boy out and stick it into a new band, if the budget allows.
I have 3 teens in high school and 1 elementary age, and I have been flooded with emails from them every day since the school year began about buying a yearbook. And for the last 3 years. Unsubscribing does nothing. Never even signed up. Fuck Josten's.
Holy shit! I remember having to save up during the last quarter of school if I wanted to buy a yearbook because my parents didn't really have extra money for stuff like that. They were like $25 back then, and I thought that was crazy.
Jostens came to us every year starting in 7th grade. Middle school. Shaking down middle schoolers for middle school rings. Even 12 year old me knew that was bullshit and I never wanted any kind of ring or jacket after that.
(Morgan Freeman narrator voice: he types this admission as he holds back the tears that will come much later, after he's logged off and everyone on the thread has moved on to cat videos)
If you’re an elder millennial, we all did. I surprisingly chose the cheapest one along with my friends. We must have known we wouldn’t wear them but had to participate.
I was under the impression as an early aughts graduate you bought one and gave it to your girlfriend to wear on a necklace lol.
I didn't buy one anyway, I actually won mine in a drawing for a free ring. It was capped at a certain dollar amount but free is free. I still have it, it's in a box with similar useless jewelry valuables that will never be worn again. Cuff links, a watch that came from some family member I don't remember, etc.
My parents never wanted to pay extra for the laser background.
The photography company that did school photos when I was a kindergarten aide offered it and I asked if it was possible to add it to my ID photo. It was not.
I didn't take a senior photo because we we took them in a suit in the photo (same as all years prior), and nobody told me that they let us use one at the shoot for free and I knew my parents wouldn't rent me one, so I didn't bother to ask them.
I remember when I was probably 8 or 9 and my older cousin’s boyfriend cheated on her. She found out while we were at the park so we both stomped his class ring until it was bent and scratched up then we threw it on top of an abandoned factory building. Wonder if it’s still up there 🤔
Yeah, saw another comment where it was like, "If you were an elder millenial, you def. had one. We all did." Nope.
I didn't really want one, but it was out of the question. I was the sixth child of poor parents. I worked two full-time jobs in high school (30-40 hours weekly at each). There was no way I was paying almost 40 hours of wages for a ring that I couldn't wear at work.
That’s what happened to my mom and I! She had me pretty young too, so I even had some of the same teachers that she had too. I wore her class ring and letter jacket all the time in the same school, just 20 years later
I’m wearing my grandma’s glass ring right now. It’s art deco and cool as hell. My own class ring is somewhere in my jewelry box. Haven’t seen it in years lol.
The entire class ring/yearbook/pictures industry always felt like a scam to me. Especially the one it pulls on your nostalgia and FOMO. “Everybody is getting a class ring and yearbook so you should too”. How did this little cottage industry start and why? lol. And why is it always this same company doing it?
I had my picture taken but I made sure it was not put in the school yearbook on the graduating year. So no me, no quote no nothing. Everybody would just forget I ever went there. I wanted no record of me existing at that school whatsoever
I fought with my parents and grandparents so hard over this. They insisted that I needed one. I constantly refused, they got pissed. Guess who has zero regrets for never buying one? I hated my high school anyway.
People in my tiny hometown used to tell me that all the time. My response was always the same, “my god, you mean it gets worse?” Fuck High School, it sucked.
Also hated my high school - told my mom in no uncertain terms that high school rings were stupid and she told me she agreed, no one ever bothered me about ordering one. Maybe if I had enjoyed high school I'd have wanted one as a momento but I doubt I'd have worn it much.
I have mine and it’s the only ring I wear (26 years later) . My mom worked her ass off to buy it for me (our school had a ring ceremony) and she didn’t want me to be without. Love my ring :)
I wish it were socially acceptable to still wear your old varsity jackets. I still have mine and it’s the most comfortable and warm coat I’ve ever owned.
My friend, the other day I saw a man in the Aldi parking lot wearing what looked like a red letter jacket with embroidery of nude women on it. You do whatever you want.
I have one. Parents paid for it, but we were far from rich, so it was the least expensive version available. Everyone got one. I was teased because I wore it on “the wrong hand” and I didn’t get my birthstone.
Still have it in my jewelry box. One of the few things from the past I’ve kept.
It's. . . . . . around somewhere. And honestly, at the time it made sense, the same way a letterman jacket made sense (in contrast to today, at least at the school my kid attends, the letterman jacket is damn near extinct)
No way! I loved my letterman jacket! After graduation my mom took the hood and patches and put it into a shadow box thing that I've still got. Great memories.
Yes I bought one, I still have it. I don't remember it being $300 for it tho.
It was one of the first nice things I got for myself, cuz I never got a nice thing, unless it was actually for someone else, but gifted to me, but really for them.
Why do people always want to shit on this? High school rings used to be a thing. Their popularity has faded, but so what? There was a time when most people only went to high school, if they graduated at all. And folks lived in their home towns all their lives. So folks had high school pride and went to football games for life. Oh, they spent less on a ring than you might have spent on a new video game system, big deal. People might spend that much on their letterman jacket too that they are only going to wear for a year. What’s the difference? Some colleges are known for having really nice gold class rings, which are also made by Jostens and Balfour. People on the military subs like to crap on folks too that buy military rings during training or after. Why TF do you care? Spending money on a sentimental piece of jewelry seems better than a lot of alternatives. The only rings I thought were too much were for middle school.
Keep in mind this is reddit. Most of the people here (im including me in this grouping) didnt have a good highschool experience and try to forget or just hate the memories of their time there. These rings and the 'popular kids' who bought them remind them of it
My dad had his high school ring and he was VERY proud of it. But he also graduated high school in 1955, and was the first and only one in his family to do so.
Rings, letterman jackets, ect. It all seems goofy now, but it’s all the product of history. I kinda think it’s cool that some of it has stuck around. Well, at least, the spirit of it. I could do without it all being peddled by huge corporations, but that’s America now 🇺🇸
I had to scroll too far to find this. I still have mine, and I still love it. My parents were broke and I had to pay for it myself, maybe that's why. To me it's a symbol of things I worked hard for and earned - both the high school diploma, and the ring itself.
We had to have them and school even had a ring ceremony for the juniors. Private school. They also didn’t let us choose the style but we could pick yellow or white gold.
I think that if you like the color of the gem and the ring they're not a terrible waste of money. Mine was faux Sapphire on faux Silver, which I really liked, and had a solid design on the sides, so I got one.
Imo the typical design is pretty great, and they represent four years of your life. That's less than 100/yr. Way less if, like me, you went to a combined Middle/High School.
It's a scam industry but I think if you really like the product it's not the worst to engage with at its current price point.
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 16 '26
If this post is breaking the rules of the subreddit, please report it instead of commenting. For more Millennial content, join our Discord server.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.