Promise Rings Promise Nothing

Promise+Rings+Promise+Nothing

Francisco Acuna, Reporter

Ever since the runways of 2012, we saw a strong 50’s comeback in women’s fashion – full of  icons such as James Deans and Marilyn Monroe. Women wore bright full skirts for dancing, and men wore dark denim, and leather jackets. It was the confusing age of conformity and the Rock n’ Roll craze. But who would have thought that not only did the fashions started trending again, but the 1950’s would undergo a social revival as well? Here  at Sahuaro High School and many other schools in the East Tucson area, the tradition of promise rings has made a reappearance. And it seems like this time they are here to stay.

According to a highly acclaimed wedding magazine, The Knot,  a promise ring “symbolizes a partner’s love and commitment to the relationship.”  They are widely used  as a symbol of promise between a couple, and dates back to the 16th century in England. Posy rings they were called, because they engraved love poems.

It wasn’t up until fairly recently in the past ten years, that promise rings commenced their comeback when celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, and Nicki Minaj began flaunting them.

Though I myself have never received nor given a promise ring, I find them to be a bit silly. I mean after all, it is a promise that someday there will be a proposal. If you have to promise to propose can you really be at a phase in your life where you should even be thinking about marriage? For that matter, in this day and age is marriage really necessary for young couples?  After all 43%-50% of marriages end in divorce according to The Huffington Post.

“I had a promise ring when I was a sophomore, and it was stupid,” says Senior Lily Merritt, remembering her bad experience with a promise ring. Within my personal group of friends there was little to no experience over the subject. A handful of people had negative things to say about promise rings; Danielle Mahler said, “Promise rings are ridiculous because if you feel strongly about a person you shouldn’t need a ring to prove it.” The list goes even further. Freshman, Samantha Valdez said, “I haven’t had much experience with promise rings, but I feel like I would much rather have an engagement ring than a ring that anticipates a proposal.” It was extremely difficult to find someone that had a good experience with promise rings. So I turned to the glamorous Giselle Enriquez-Durazo for answers. She told me, “I had a promise ring and it was great. It felt so rewarding receiving a symbol of all the love and affection I had given.”

Though silly and childish we can all agree that it’s a sweet gift to receive and give. Unless you don’t get one in return.