A Promise Ring

At age 30, I bought myself a promise ring.

It sounds ridiculous and silly, especially as a married woman, but hear me out... I have wanted an emerald cut ring for a long time, but they're generally not the kind of thing you buy for yourself. However, flashback to 2014/2015, I was riding shotgun in a friend's car and I noticed a beautiful ring on her hand. As I was complimenting her, she got a little sheepish and responded, "Thanks. This was a ring I bought myself when a lot of my friends were getting engaged. I hadn't found the guy yet, but I wanted to get a pretty ring for myself."

WHAT A COOL MOVE.

Seriously, why not get yourself a ring? Who says it has to be gifted?

So, over the years, I decided I wanted to do that for myself at some point. I just never knew what kind of event would prompt it. Finally, I settled on a goal: once my car and student loans are paid off, I'm buying myself a ring.

Well, 2020 had other plans. I was able to pay off my student loans, but I did so with a severance package from my company no longer existing. It seemed a little nuts to buy myself a nice ring when I was soon out-of-a-job...

I didn't buy the ring then, and decided if it was still going to happen, it would.

Then, after running my first 10k, I had a feeling in my stomach that this was the goal, and this was the time to do it.

I hopped on Etsy, and found a ring that's exactly what I wanted. I ordered it, and a few weeks later it arrived. It's not as fancy as I had originally thought in my head (not a diamond, because...$$$) BUT I love it all the same. I'm happy I did it for this goal, rather than paying off my student loans, because now when I see it, it's a reminder to myself to keep going with fitness goals. It's an everyday reminder that I did something HARD after a lot of training. I stuck with it, and accomplished something I set out to do.

This is a promise to myself to keep going, to keep working hard, and to believe in myself.