Why I’ll Always Love My Wedding Ring

Singlegal

“My wedding ring is a symbol that I was once loved” ~ Suzanne Finnamore, Split

Occasionally, I’m asked what became of my wedding ring. I took it off the day after Ex left, and even wrote a blog post about it. But I haven’t pawned it or sold it, and it’s doubtful I ever will.

I love that ring. It’s nothing special, and would probably go for very little if I ever attempted to sell it. I remember when I first started wearing it, and it was shiny and new. People asked to see it, as is commonplace after a marriage, and I showed it with pride. I remember the security I felt each morning when I slide it on and adjusted it. To this day, I will reach for it on my finger sometimes, like there’s a vacant spot where something important once lived.

For the most part, the love of my wedding ring doesn’t have much to do with Ex. He never cared much for his (literally and symbolically) and often didn’t wear it (a red flag I’d never ignore again in another marriage). But what my ring meant to me was that I’d reached a certain level of success with both my life and my dreams. My ring symbolized not just a union, but the culmination of checking off so many items on my life-to-do-list. I suppose I could look at that ring now as a symbol of failure, but I don’t. Instead, I look at it like once, I was able to get so far along the path of everything I wanted, that I *almost* made it. And maybe someday, when I’m not flailing out here in this unguided sea, I might again.

I guess it’s a symbol of hope for me.

I’m sure there are other less healthy attachments to my ring. I’m sure I hang on to it because at times I feel like I might never get married again, and that I have this ring to remind me that I managed to do it once, and that it was, indeed, real. But for the most part, on the occasions I slip it on now, it reminds me that I had this whole other life one time, and there was a lot of good in that life, just as there is in my one now.

I love that ring. And if nothing else, it will always be mine.

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