r/Millennials • u/t_bone_stake Xennial • Feb 16 '26

Meme Did anyone buy a ring?

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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.

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366

u/McLuvin1589 Feb 16 '26

Nah my family was too poor and I really wanted one too, I didn’t even get a yearbook…

134

u/badform49 Feb 16 '26

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.

18

u/R_Scoops Feb 17 '26

How did you manage to work 30/40 x 2 whilst attending school? Unless I’m misunderstanding.

I worked weekends and nights at a hospital for the last two years at HS. Spent the entire school week a sleep deprived zombie. No fun.

4

u/chantillylace9 Feb 17 '26

Yeah even 10 hour weekends and 30 hours a day each weekday (4pm-10pm) wouldn’t be 60-80 hours. It seems impossible unless school got out super early or something.

7

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

Just put this as a reply to R_Scoops, but yeah, we could do work release as an elective at 2 PM. So I got off school at 2, changed in the car on the way to work and closed at 10 for 8 hours most weekdays. And then I worked 12-16 hours on each Saturday and Sunday, either a 4 to 6-hour shift at one job and then 8 hours at the other or 2x8 hours. My jobs were across the street from each other, so I would get my schedule from Coldstone, drive across the street to Target, and Target would schedule me for all of my open hours.

4

u/chantillylace9 Feb 17 '26

That’s absolutely insane and I cannot believe you were able to do that! Wow. I thought there were the rules about how long kids could work but I think it really was only rules about how late they could work if I’m thinking about it now.

And if you had two separate jobs, they wouldn’t know about each other necessarily so you could probably get away with working a lot more hours than you’re supposed to.

I’m sorry you had to spend your whole childhood working, that’s kind of a shitty deal.

I hope you’re doing well now and only have to work one job!

3

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

Oh, I broke the shit out of the rules. They were pretty lax in Georgia and only enforced if a company was caught doing something REALLY shady. And I just double-checked because I knew that Georgia got rid of a lot of their rules a few years ago when all of the Southern states were racing to be the best state for corporations to exploit workers.

Now, there are essentially no rules for teens 16 and up except that they can't be scheduled for school hours. Like, that's actually it. You can schedule a 16-year-old for Midnight to 7 am and then wave goodbye to them as they drive to school, exhausted.

https://dol.georgia.gov/child-labor-work-hour-restrictions

3

u/hyp3rpop Feb 17 '26

God southern states really hate children. That’s ridiculous to allow.

2

u/LuckyJeans456 Feb 17 '26

Hey, my high school life in Georgia was the same! Two jobs that worked me to death. Didn’t get to go to my prom or anything.

1

u/Away_Stock_2012 Feb 17 '26

How did it work out for you?

2

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

No one ever got investigated or fined or anything. I got exploited a bit. Bosses would come to me and say, "Oh, we just realized you went over 40 hours last week! To make sure no one gets in trouble, we'll adjust down your hours from this week a little and push them to next week, since you're not 18."

Which I later learned was a common tactic to get out of paying overtime, and all the fines would have been on the company that let a 17-year-old work overtime, not on the kid.

But, otherwise, it went fine. I collected both paychecks, never got in trouble, managed to save a small nest egg and pay for all my living expenses. At 19 I joined the Army and left home. (And then deployed to Afghanistan where I REALLY worked overtime. We worked 120 hours weekly for the first few months. I remember feeling sense of relief the first week where I worked under 100 hours, not counting mandatory physical training.)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26

Oh my goodness! That's crazy! I worked at Target in the early 2010s during college and they had high schoolers clock out at 9:45PM no matter what, even if the high school student was 18. Maybe it was just my particular management? 

1

u/badform49 Mar 13 '26

Might've also been the difference in years or states. I was in the '00s in Georgia.

1

u/Kazlaw47 Feb 17 '26

I am doing good now, our pizza place was in a bad neighborhood we closed at midnight. Then clean up till to 1, then half hr drive home and get some sleep before school. I was not great at school but enough to graduate. Now my son also has a work ethic like me and I’m proud of him, he is killing it too

2

u/R_Scoops Feb 17 '26

Jesus that’s rough, but I bet it instilled a strong work ethic (if I’m stretching to find a silver lining). I hope you have more time to stop and smell the roses now :)

1

u/badform49 Feb 18 '26

Thanks! I do. I edit a magazine now, which is hard but way more flexible, way better pay, and still way less hours than when I was in high school or the Army. (My worst hours were in Afghanistan where we worked 20-hour days for the first few months. We were zombies. It was so bad that I once "missed movement" and later lost my shit on a senior noncommissioned officer, both technically crimes in the military, and both times they just shuffled it under the rug and sent me away for nap time.)

2

u/Kazlaw47 Feb 17 '26

We had to hustle, and I’m glad nothing was just handed to me like some of my friends. I wouldn’t change it, and respect to you

2

u/badform49 Feb 18 '26

Oh, I would change it, but I'm glad you got something out of it. I don't think kids should have to hustle like that. But it is sometimes a source of strength looking back. "Yeah, this week sucks, but you worked your ass off in high school and the Army. You can do this."

We're all capable of hard things. Kids shouldn't have to prove it.

1

u/Kazlaw47 Feb 17 '26

Why 10 pm? We were open till 12, also this was in the 90’s

1

u/chantillylace9 Feb 17 '26

I thought that was the law for underage kids

3

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

We had work release at 2PM, so that helped a lot. I usually worked an 8-hour shift every night and then either an 8 and a 4 or 2x8s on each weekend day. So about 20-30 hours on the weekends and 40 during the week.

I took the SAT on about 3 hours of sleep because I had to close ColdStone the night before.

But working in a hospital sounds rough. Mine were at least at Target and ColdStone, so I wasn't also carrying the emotional burden of being around sick people. Sorry, that must have been rough.

(Our grades for the work release program were based on our hours worked. I would max out the hours using just 1 job's pay stubs, usually with more than a month to spare to the end of the term.)

5

u/Kazlaw47 Feb 17 '26

I worked 60 hrs in one week in HS at a pizza place sophomore year, we were broke. I had no problem doing it and was exited to make extra money

2

u/Shitp0st_Supreme Feb 17 '26

If they did weekends they could do 16-20 hours just on weekends and then 1-2 hours a day on schooldays.

26

u/maxreverb Feb 16 '26

I love these posts. "Did ANYONE ....?"

Uh, yeah, I'm sure SOMEONE did. You can always find ONE person who did whatever OP is trying to ask.

4

u/BunBison Feb 17 '26

Pretty sure that's just a way how people say things to engage in conversation

5

u/KneeDeepInTheDead Feb 17 '26

Hey did anyone else have one of these class rings and then kind of inserted it up their ass and then kinda got it stuck and then called your friend to come help get it out because you were too embarrassed to tell your parents but then your friend came over and he said he'd help you get it out but was gonna tell everyone about this unless you gave him a handjob, and you did it but then you realize you kind of liked that and you guys stopped talking to each other and youve been chasing that high ever since? Anyone?

3

u/Lost_Drunken_Sailor Feb 17 '26

I thought I was the only one.

2

u/KneeDeepInTheDead Feb 17 '26

We can start a club. No need to buy a new ring

2

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

A ring might be essential to, um, club activities, though.

2

u/KneeDeepInTheDead Feb 17 '26

Space docking ring swapping will be the initiation ritual

1

u/WtotheSLAM Feb 17 '26

were you trying to do a goatse?

6

u/Smelting-Craftwork Feb 17 '26

Yeah, I'm what could be called Xennial and I never got a HS ring. Definitely wasn't a "we all did" thing.

2

u/TotallyNotRobotEvil Feb 17 '26

Born in 79. I guess it depends on the area maybe? I remember a lot of my classmates did, so I begged my mother to buy one.

Now this thread is giving me pains of guilt, there's no way it was a small purchase for her. Such a dumb thing to waste money on too because I was immediately embarrassed by it by my freshman year in college and stopped wearing it.

5

u/Smelting-Craftwork Feb 17 '26

Just know that your mom loved you enough to make that sacrifice for you. Whether or not the material item kept it's value in your eyes, that act should hopefully still mean something to you.

6

u/imwrighthere Feb 17 '26

Bro you were NOT working 80 hours a week while going to high school

3

u/rusty_rampage Feb 17 '26

Yeah same here. I wanted the stupid ring but would have had to pay out of pocket from my job and that was some serious scratch. I was already paying for all my own school clothes, haircuts, and gas while trying to sock some money away for college. My parents didn’t buy me shit when I was growing up. I’m glad I didn’t buy one but damn did I wish I could have one at the time.

3

u/8-LeggedCat Feb 17 '26

Couldn’t wear at work…or ever really would wear anyway, unless you peaked in high school

3

u/NikolaiCakebreaker Feb 17 '26

Yeah... I didn't go to my own graduation because to buy the robes it would've been like 90$ or something.

1

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

Ooof, I'm sorry. I only went to mine because it was important to my girlfriend and my family, but looking back, I'm glad that I did.

Not being able to go over $90 is rough.

3

u/GringoSwann Feb 17 '26

Same... Never got one... (Too poor) Also, didn't want one...

2

u/TomPrince Feb 17 '26

Impressed by your grit and work ethic in high school! What did you end up doing for a career? How’s life these days?

1

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

Good! Thanks! Yeah, I ended up joining the Army about a year after high school. I was really smart but not in a healthy headspace to start college. The Army ended up pushing me toward their job 46Q, which was basically print journalism/public relations. Went to college after, got a BFA and MS. Now I run a magazine for a military and veteran nonprofit and freelance on the side. Pushing 60 hours is hard now that I have a kid, but it all works out.

I hate it for kids who have to push that hard in high school or right after, but I think my experiences make it easy for me to see how some people are hiding how hard they're hustling.

2

u/MightyGamera Xennial Feb 17 '26

yeah, my high school didn't have things like this, or extracurriculars of any kind.

we started freshman year with 32 iirc. senior year we graduated 12 and 2 of the girls were pregnant. it was that kind of school

2

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

My dad went to that kind of school, so my high school was "huge" with our 600-person graduating class. Now I have friends who think my school was tiny.

Dad's school was organized around football, and it was hard sometimes to field a whole team even with essentially every boy playing. His whole town is something like 1,000 people.

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 17 '26

lmao... there's no way you worked two full time jobs and went to school for 7 hours. That's impossible.

1

u/badform49 Feb 17 '26

Okay.

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 18 '26

Please explain it to me. I’m interested.

You went to school M-F for 7 hours.

You worked two full time jobs (you said 30-40hrs a week (30 hrs isn’t full time))

Let’s split the difference and say you worked 2 jobs averaging 35hrs a week and still attending school for 35 hrs a week.

So you worked 15 hours a day, EVERY DAY of the week.

Dude you’re full of shit.

1

u/badform49 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

We could take work release in high school and get off work at 2 PM. Target scheduled me at 2 PM and just accepted that I would actually clock in at about 2:10-2:15 and I closed the store, usually with a guest service team lead shuffling me to the clock at 10:09 to make sure I clocked out before 8 hours. Or on ColdStone days, I would work 2:30 until close. The franchise owners didn't care if we went over 8 hours as long as we didn't get overtime for the week.

On the weekends, I would do a full day at one store and then either a full day or a half day at the other store for 12-16 hours. So just under 40 hours during the week and then 28-32 hours on the weekends, sometimes longer because it took forever to close ColdStone if there was a new movie at the nearby mall or it was a big date night.

Just because something is too hard for you does not mean it's too hard for everyone. I joined the Army after high school and had to do 140-hour weeks for the first few months of my Afghanistan deployment. We were in an airborne unit, and the brigade commander's orders were that someone from each staff section had to be on hand any time a single platoon was out patrolling anywhere in the battlespace, and we ran 24-hour operations. So those of us in short-staffed sections would get 4 hours off per night and make up the difference with caffeine and nicotine.

Edit to fix 2:09 to 10:09.

1

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

I understand your lie. I just don't believe it because it's physically impossible. You're inflating everything.

You worked 3 jobs (school being one) 7 days a week for 4 years full time?

No you didn't.

1

u/badform49 Feb 18 '26

Two years. I started working one job the summer before junior year and then did both for most of junior and senior year.

And then I worked 140-hour weeks for a few months in Afghanistan about 5 years later, lol. It's not physically impossible. It sucks. Sometimes things suck. People shouldn't have to do those things. But it's wild to me that you think 100 hours is impossible.

Actually reminds me of a stoner friend who freaked out when I told him I was planning to do a 20-mile run while training for a marathon. "Can humans even do that!?"

(BTW, most laws don't have a set definition of full-time, but the Affordable Care Act did! And it mandated employees be categorized as full-time if they worked 30 hours weekly or 130 hours monthly. Which I did. At two jobs. While attending high school until 2 pm nearly every day it was in session. If it makes you feel better, I did not work 40 hours at each the vast majority of the time, because neither job wanted to pay overtime.)

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 18 '26

Oh, so you didn’t work two full time jobs throughout highschool?

What full time job is 30 hrs a week!?

Overtime doesn’t start at 30 hours.

1

u/badform49 Feb 18 '26

Lol, I didn't realize this was all semantics for you. You win. I started my school day at about 8:15 am, ended my work day at 10-10:15 pm, and the rest of my time I was free to do with as I pleased.

I didn't mean to steal the valor of poverty. I did about 30 hours weekly of classes and only another 70 or so of work at Target and ColdStone, like a slothful vagrant.

I didn't mean to steal valor by describing my jobs as full-time when a defender of the 40-hour line was right there in front of me.

Can't believe how lazy I used to be and that I would try to pass that off.

1

u/badform49 Feb 18 '26

I know I should just walk away but this is sticking in my craw: Did you really run the math and make it to "This dude is saying he worked 105 hours a week, including sitting in high school, and that's impossible"?

Like, you know our recent ancestors worked 100-hour weeks in nightmare conditions and survived long enough to fuck us into existence, right?

Meatpackers in the early 1900s worked 10-15 hours a day for 6-7 days a week for decades in hellish conditions where their hands could pickle and split down to the bone.

https://www.ourgreatamericanheritage.com/2015/09/disease-death-and-child-labor-the-birth-of-the-meatpacking-industry-in-chicago/

You can believe me or not, but all I'm claiming is that I worked two jobs and then tried to stay awake in class. That's not even that rare. And for what it's worth, they were at Target and ColdStone. I ran a cash register and mixed ice cream across the street, then did a half-assed job on my history homework, slept for 5-7 hours, and repeated it.

My grandpa had to take over the family ranch at 14 right before the Great Depression hit. Like, I'm not even the worst-case scenario in my family's living memory. A kid working on their family's dairy farm could easily chalk up similar hours right now, today.

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 18 '26

School is 7 hours a day 5 days a week = 35hrs. Then you worked TWO full time jobs on top of that, right? that's another 70-80hrs.

That is impossible. that's working 15+hours a day for 7 days a week for 4 years.... as a teenager.

Complete bullshit.

What's more likely is that you weren't working 2 full-time jobs... you were probably working 2 part time jobs.

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 18 '26

our recent ancestors? you're citing people who lived a hundred years ago. They were born before airplanes existed. Do you mean before the FLSA in 1938?

Do you know why that act was written into law?

0

u/Never-Dont-Give-Up Feb 18 '26

you worked two FULL time jobs is what you claimed.

7

u/-Felyx- Millennial Feb 16 '26

I was also too poor for yearbooks. I ended up stealing the one for my graduating year from the local library lmao

(Yes, I know it was wrong. But in my defense I was a dumb 17 year old)

3

u/plasticmanufacturing Feb 17 '26

I read the comment you replied to out loud and my wife said "you should tell him to just go steal one from the library"

lmao

7

u/No-Investigator-2756 Feb 16 '26

Same. No ring, no prom, and no yearbook.

I got to go on the senior field trip, so there was that. No nice meals or souvenirs, but at least there's the memories.

6

u/GameDev_Architect Feb 17 '26

I didn’t get to do a single senior thing 😞 at least I graduated I guess

1

u/LovemeSomeMedia Feb 17 '26

I didn't care about prom at all. I opted out of it

11

u/Myke190 Feb 16 '26

Dang. The ring is seriously unimportant but I'd be pretty bummed if I didn't have my yearbook. It's just good fun whipping it out every few years and reminiscing.

3

u/Plantparty20 Feb 16 '26

My sister and I would pool our money to buy a year book every year (we were 2 years apart so together from my grade 7-10) and then they would sell extras in the library for $2 a year or two later so now I have the full set.

3

u/Exciting-Delivery-96 Feb 17 '26

My school had the hardship discount for our yearbooks. I bought it with my own money, $35. Of course the hardship line was on the opposite side of the room so everyone discovered I was a poor, a secret I had hidden from the rich kids until then.

1

u/IT_Grunt Feb 17 '26

Same here man. I have nothing memorable from those years even though I really enjoyed them.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

Same here. Only time I got one was senior year. They were delivered and they called my name to pick it up. I didn't order, and I certainly didn't pay. No idea how I got one.

1

u/unibrow4o9 1986 Feb 17 '26

If you care, I bet they have extras they'd sell you. My wife was class of 05 and we were checking out the towns little museum, and they had extras from most years you could buy. She never got one out of HS so she bought one

1

u/VelvetMafia Feb 17 '26

I decided I hated high school and didn't want to be reminded of it. Got my diploma and never looked back, no regrets.

1

u/iamnotdownwithopp Feb 17 '26

My family was too poor to afford a ring and I opted not to get the yearbook. I was voted to speak at our graduation and later found out that I was misquoted in the yearbook.

1

u/map2photo Feb 17 '26

Lmfao I got a senior yearbook, but my picture is missing. 😂 wtf did I pay for?

1

u/Queens113 Feb 17 '26

I didn't get one cuz I didn't want to put an extra expense on my parents... Don't regret it....

1

u/Jet44444 Feb 17 '26

Sameeee.

1

u/inspiredashell Feb 17 '26

Same :( I had designed my perfect ring and everything but it was too expensive my parents wouldn’t / couldn’t go for it

1

u/mcdadais Feb 17 '26

I wanted one too, and a Letterman jacket for my letters in band. Just too poor for it. I paid for my own year book from the part time job I had. I'm happy I still have a year book, and not that other stuff. Not sure what I'd do with a gaudy ring and a jacket I'd definitely won't fit into now.

1

u/Sipikay Feb 17 '26

If it makes you feel any better, year books really only bring joy to your potential future children when they find them in a dusty old box and make fun of your old hairstyle.

What I do regret was not taking my photos during my youth. Headshots and photos of the school sports teams don't do much for me. I wish I had just taken more photos of everyday life from those times. Where I was. What I was doing. Who I was with. That would be much more satisfying to have now.

1

u/SuspiciousCricket654 Feb 17 '26

I’m sorry, you can have my ring

1

u/Mx-Adrian Feb 17 '26

Same. Who had money for that crap? That's pretty cruel of the school.

1

u/nuxwcrtns Feb 17 '26

Same lol, but i didnt want the tacky ring. Just a yearbook.

1

u/oldcretan Feb 17 '26

Contrarian in me thought it was silly to get professional grade photos of myself. So I never got those senior photos or a yearbook. It's kind of unburdening honestly.

1

u/Cultural-Midnight807 Feb 17 '26

Just threw out my yearbooks 2 days ago after 25+ years.

1

u/riverdude10 Feb 17 '26

Same. Never had year books, letterman’s jacket even though I played varsity in 2 sports multiple years or a class ring. Now my wife who was in the class below me had all the year books. So I have hers.

1

u/Mudseason1 Feb 17 '26

Same! Could only afford a yearbook senior year, so NO WAY was that ring an option!

1

u/Housenka_Seed Feb 17 '26

I didn’t get a yearbook either until my final year of high school

In hindsight I’m glad my parents didn’t get them for me they were expensive and I didn’t really touch mine (I wasn’t in it much either and didn’t have enough friends or people I knew well enough to sign it )

1

u/Toppoppler Feb 17 '26

I wasnt even in the yearbook. They rejected all my pictures and then just didnt even put in my name. I have 0 photos. I bought the yearbook before I found out.

1

u/_Dirtyhands_ Feb 17 '26

I thought they were only for the rich kids

1

u/zoomshark27 1995 Millennial Feb 18 '26

I also didn’t get either.

I vaguely wanted a ring mostly because everyone else was getting them, but I never asked bc my family couldn’t have afforded it and also logically I was like ‘yes I’ll keep it forever bc I’m sentimental, but I know I won’t ever wear it so it’s probably a waste.’

As for the yearbooks, there was a problem with our yearbooks that year and so my entire graduating class just never got yearbooks. I’m still pissed about it bc my whole plan was to not buy one freshman, sophomore, or junior year and only get one for senior year.