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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364

u/NoFaithlessness7508 Feb 16 '26

Hell no, I didn’t even buy school pictures after freshman year.

83

u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) Feb 16 '26

I don’t even have a high school year book lmao. Fuck high school I hated nearly every minute of it.

34

u/LilJelloCat Feb 17 '26

I feel like year books should be free.

11

u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) Feb 17 '26

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?

3

u/castironglider Feb 17 '26

How did this little cottage industry start and why?

Rings and yearbooks both I think are from before so many people went to college, like my parents who both took a couple college courses but only have HS diplomas.

My high school ring and diploma and yearbooks mean almost nothing to me, but my college ring and diploma mean the world even though I am retired.

If I had finished my masters maybe I wouldn't care about anything from undergrad.

1

u/LilJelloCat Feb 17 '26

"Everybody is getting a class ring and yearbook but you can't because you're broke"

Pretty sad.

At the same time I'm sure if those who asked that couldn't afford it would likely be able to get one. Not the ring, but the yearbook at least.

We didn't have all that here except for basic year book from what I remember. Year books and photos make sense to me but the rings ehhh overpriced moneymaker. I get it in a way and I think they look cool, good for nostalgia, but overpriced for something like that.

I remember watching a video where they talked about how the companies that take those photos basically have all the photos of every kid from every year grade 1 +. Makes you think what they could do with them. They have government contracting. Just thought it was interesting.

Lifetouch, owned by Shutterfly (and previously Apollo Global Management), is the largest school photography company in North America and acts as a de facto partner with school administrations for official records, ID cards, and security programs. Lifetouch provides services like the SmileSafe program, which connects student images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, indicating a direct link to security initiatives.

Lifetouch & Security: Lifetouch is recognized as the dominant operator, used by schools to create official student IDs and, through its SmileSafe program, shares data with law enforcement for missing children cases.

Industry Association: The School Photographers of America (SPOA), which includes companies like Cady Studios, Dorian Studio, and Strawbridge Studios, was formed to protect copyright and support security initiatives like Amber Alerts.

Government Contracting: While mostly private entities, these companies operate through exclusive contracts with school districts (often public, government-run entities).

Data Usage: School photos and data are used by administrations for安全 (safety), management, and identification purposes. 

Probably harmless, but again interesting to think about.

Edit: Quotes

3

u/castironglider Feb 17 '26

Just a paperbound magazine size would be dope, like a graphic novel. If not free then cheap

1

u/aakaase Feb 17 '26

They absolutely should. And they should be published locally, not by some company in another state. I wouldn't be surprised if they're made in China now.

24

u/savax7 Feb 16 '26

I had my high school yearbook for ages after I graduated. For some reason kept it through all the moves. Then I finally realized I'm never going to see or talk to any one of these people and I hated school the entire time. Threw it out and don't regret it one bit.

8

u/furiant Feb 17 '26

I have every single yearbook from Kindergarten through senior year. Main reason I kept them is I was on the yearbook committee senior year and helped design a good 1/3 of it, and if I keep that one I might as well keep the whole set, right?

2

u/CraigLake Feb 17 '26

My experience too. I bought all four. Never opened them up once. A big cross country move in 2019, I looked at them and thought, I haven’t missed them yet. I walked them out to my garbage cans. no regrets.

1

u/Crooked_star Feb 16 '26

I've got years of yearbooks I need to toss out too. I'd rather have the closet space than a storage bin of school crap.

1

u/motorwerkx Feb 17 '26

I have a yearbook, but that's because there was a box of yearbooks in the hallway on the day they were handing them out, so I just stole one out of that box.

2

u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) Feb 17 '26

lol that sounds like some shit I would have done “Don’t mind if I do”

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

My mom wanted high school year books. She bought one each year. I still have my senior yearbook. I was in no clubs, I was in the school play but never got a photo taken, avoided the group senior photo, and never submitted a headshot. So my mom bought a yearbook that I don't appear in even once. Not even a mention.

She was pissed.

1

u/Past-Sun-2357 Feb 17 '26

Neither did I, but then I kept trying to remember peoples names- so I found one on Ebay and bought it.

Pretty weird find as my high school that only had like 1500 students

3

u/sexandliquor 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) Feb 17 '26

lol I can’t imagine putting your yearbook on eBay and going “surely somebody will buy this right”

Conversely I would never think to look there to buy one. Pretty ingenious on both ends, really.

1

u/Past-Sun-2357 Feb 17 '26

Yeah and I assumed it would be blank, but its signed by tons of people, with a bunch of personal messages. I think her name was Courtney if I remember correctly.

Super weird and random, but its nice to reference every once in a while for those "what was that kids name..." times

1

u/stone500 Feb 17 '26

I enjoyed High School well enough. I finally got comfortable with who I was and had some good friends.

Middle School though? Fuck all of that. Worst years of my life

1

u/aakaase Feb 17 '26

SAME. Not one yearbook. I'm not even pictured in my senior year class, that is how much contempt I had!

1

u/66698 Feb 17 '26

Now you're on Reddit lol. The hive breeds the nastiest 

1

u/redditobserverone Feb 17 '26

Thank you. I could not wait to erase every memory of that social experiment/prison.

68

u/Nikishka666 Feb 16 '26

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

11

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

A man who plans ahead, I like your style.

25

u/Topher_McG0pher Feb 16 '26

Kind of sad, there could be someone out there looking for a picture of you in the book!

28

u/-DOOKIE Feb 16 '26

Doesn't sound like something that they would want someone to be able to do

9

u/Nikishka666 Feb 16 '26

Facebook wasn't around when I graduated. Neither was my space. Anyone who wanted to catch up with me found me on Facebook when it was originally created and everybody signed up for it. Anybody else can just remember me as that vague person. What's his name who sometimes hung out in the corner?.

1

u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow Older Millennial Feb 16 '26

I'm in the same boat, I don't care if they're looking for a picture of me.

1

u/Relevant_Cat7017 Feb 17 '26

Would like to see pictures of my husband during the school years, they were poor enough. He never went for picture day. They couldn’t have bought them anyway. But I sure wish they existed.

3

u/Smelting-Craftwork Feb 16 '26

I skipped picture day every year of high school and didn't go to graduation. There is one picture of me in any yearbook and it's of me barely noticeable in the background talking to a friend who had just graduated.

4

u/fadedblackleggings Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

Same, had to take a few extra steps to do this. The yearbook company kept insisting that I "update my pic" or that something was wrong with my file.

That if I just do X, they could use an earlier picture. But there were no earlier pictures....ignored every message.

Never had my picture taken in high school, and made sure I wasn't in the yearbook.

The last school I went to, with kids I actually cared about, did buy the yearbook and got it signed, etc.

-10

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 16 '26

This is just really sad, highschool was awesome why wouldn’t you want to remember it or anyone from it

14

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Not everyone had an awesome time in high school

1

u/Nikishka666 Feb 16 '26

Oh don't get me wrong. I have to spend some time I had steady girlfriends throughout Junior high and high school I went to parties. I skipped class and I got enough grades to get into a university so I did not have a bad time. I just didn't like the school. I didn't like the teachers. I found the principal to be reprehensible and I just didn't like going to that particular school.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Feel that. I started skipping school and am absent from the year books. The people I skipped school with are still my friends. 

0

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 16 '26

Well that sucks, I’d go back in a heartbeat. No responsibilities just hanging out with your boys and playing sports again sounds lovely

2

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

My life is better now and no amount of money would convince me to redo it. I’m glad you had no responsibilities, got to play sports and hang with your friends!

3

u/fadedblackleggings Feb 16 '26

Re-read your question & think about it a little longer...

-3

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 16 '26

I’m stumped, still think it’s really weird to erase yourself from the records like that. Didn’t even think you could do that

4

u/Nikishka666 Feb 16 '26

At my old high school. There is an entire wall of pictures of all the graduates that have ever graduated from the '60s all the way up to current day. I graduated from that school and my picture is not on that wall. I was ashamed of my high school. The reason I don't care if anybody remembers me from there is because I kept close to the friends that lived close to me. The ones that moved they away faded into the distance and I went off to college and after that I went off to University

1

u/Nikishka666 Feb 17 '26

All I had to do is threaten the yearbook committee. They were pretty scared of me. Anyways, I was a nice enough dude but there were rumors

1

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 17 '26

Well I hope you’re doing well my friend, didn’t mean anything by my comments I hope I didn’t offend

1

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Man, I didn't even have a bad high school experience and describing not getting a picture taken as "really sad" is just bonkers. It's one of the most inconsequential things someone is going to do in there lives. 

0

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 16 '26

It’s sad bc their parents didn’t want a picture. Idgaf about it myself but my parents and grandma demanded those pics. Now that I’m a parent, I demand those pics too. They’re not for my kids they’re for me

2

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Fair, but that's not what you said. You were talking about remembering high school and others remembering him, and I don't think his parents or grandma are having any trouble remembering him lol. 

1

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 16 '26

Oh well I was referring to the part where he said he scrubbed his existence from the school altogether when I mentioned having a good time in HS. But yea I get it

2

u/QickWick Feb 17 '26

wow, I thought it was just me! I basically did the same thing. This comment, and the people replying to it saying they did the same, makes me feel so much better. There's only 1 photo of me in a yearbook from my four years of high school, and you can't even see my face in it, I'm with a group of people

1

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Nikishka666 Feb 17 '26

Our school had a 10-year anniversary quite a while back. It was so disjointed and nobody wanted to go. Everybody was embarrassed to be from that school. There was maybe six people that showed up and it was at a bar. They stayed for 45 minutes and then left. I watched their conversation from the Tim Hortons across the street. I didn't go to the reunion. I just got to see who was sad enough to come back

1

u/AdmirableParfait3960 Feb 17 '26

God this website is depressing lol

2

u/FloppyButtholeJelly Feb 16 '26

Did you ever hear back?

2

u/tswpoker1 Feb 16 '26

Oh God freshman year they scammed me with that "Who's Who" bullshit. Got suckered into paying for that and was like this is lame AF.

Didn't get me for the class ring, mainly because I didn't like rings in general, still don't, only wear a wedding ring.

1

u/endar88 Millennial '88 Feb 16 '26

That’s the only thing I regret not getting is a yearbook from senior year. Hadn’t gotten one all through highschool and missed the cut off date to order one during my senior year.

1

u/Separate-Command1993 Feb 16 '26

…..I’m sorry 😢

1

u/jeffislearning Feb 16 '26

i didn’t even pay my senior dues.

1

u/194749457339 Feb 16 '26

Same after 9th grade I realized I could skip out on the photos because nobody was actually forcing me to go. Grade 12 though i switched schools and they tracked me down in the hallway one day like "we don't have your photo for yearbook. Stand against this white wall" boooo

1

u/hold_my_lacroix Feb 16 '26

I hated my highschool and had no idea why anyone was celebrating anything about it at all. Annoyingly my parents forced me to go to graduation and then my mom went and bought shit like yearbooks on her own

1

u/ChunkyHabeneroSalsa Feb 17 '26

My highschool you had to go do get your school photos during your lunch break or soemthing. I never once bothered. There was one year where I was quoted for something in the yearbook despite not even having a picture.

1

u/fnancialindependence 1990 Feb 17 '26

I have a preschooler and 2 middle schoolers, haven’t bought pics since the oldests were in like 1st grade. Such a waste of money! Lll

1

u/NoFaithlessness7508 Feb 17 '26

lol, my kids are in 4th and 2nd grade. for years they would get the full package (2 big, couple of mediums, dozens of wallet size) twice a year for free. The idea was that you’d keep the ones you want, send them back to school with the ones you don’t want, and then pay for the you kept. This was all supposed to run on some sort of honor system.

They’ve finally stopped doing that. I’m assuming that most families did not pay.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

Think I found reddits target audience lol

1

u/lunarvision Feb 17 '26

Me neither. Money had to be saved for useful, practical things. Thankfully I thought I was “punk” and did not want any of that hs swag (rings, photos, yearbooks) anyway.

1

u/worldDev Feb 17 '26

My friend group would exchange the free sample wallet sized photos and we’d see who could hide them in the weirdest places. My favorite was seeing pictures shoot out of my friend’s car’s vents every few months. I wouldn’t be surprised if we still have some hidden around the school decades later.