These two rings I have, and the body I no longer have
I have two rings that mean a lot to me. Both of them were gifts from my mom.
The first ring is a 14 K gold twisted band, what some call a "shrimp" style ring, no stone. My mom gave my sister and I each one of those on Christmas Day the year after she survived breast cancer. She said it was a special thank you for being so supportive through her illness.
I wore that ring damn near every day in high school. Just as I was about to graduate and I turned 18, my mother randomly gifted me with the second ring: her birthstone ring, which she had received from her parents when she was 18. It's a gold band, with a garnet (for January) and one tiny diamond on each side of the stone.
I love that ring too; very simple, very elegant. I wore it a lot.
And then in late college I started gaining weight again. On and off through the years I had other rings to wear, and those two rings from my mom had to go in the jewelry box because my fingers are too big for them.
I weigh over 100 pounds more than I did in high school now. I would love to wear those rings again. I believe rings can be resized. But how much can you stretch gold? I feel like these rings are the story of my body: beautiful once, and now too stretched, never again to fit a beautiful shape. They can't even fit on my pinkys now.
I feel like I have no right to get them resized, like this is my punishment for being fat. "If I could just lose the weight, really lose it, I could wear those rings again."
The first ring is a 14 K gold twisted band, what some call a "shrimp" style ring, no stone. My mom gave my sister and I each one of those on Christmas Day the year after she survived breast cancer. She said it was a special thank you for being so supportive through her illness.
I wore that ring damn near every day in high school. Just as I was about to graduate and I turned 18, my mother randomly gifted me with the second ring: her birthstone ring, which she had received from her parents when she was 18. It's a gold band, with a garnet (for January) and one tiny diamond on each side of the stone.
I love that ring too; very simple, very elegant. I wore it a lot.
And then in late college I started gaining weight again. On and off through the years I had other rings to wear, and those two rings from my mom had to go in the jewelry box because my fingers are too big for them.
I weigh over 100 pounds more than I did in high school now. I would love to wear those rings again. I believe rings can be resized. But how much can you stretch gold? I feel like these rings are the story of my body: beautiful once, and now too stretched, never again to fit a beautiful shape. They can't even fit on my pinkys now.
I feel like I have no right to get them resized, like this is my punishment for being fat. "If I could just lose the weight, really lose it, I could wear those rings again."