Sophomore Mallory Mleynek shows off her purity ring that references 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
No, this is not another article about ring by spring.
Freshman Andrea Ver Mulm has worn hers long before the snow melted.
It’s a purity ring, rather than an engagement ring, that Ver Mulm wears on her ring finger. While it may seem like “everybody’s engaged,” the majority of Northwestern students have ring stories like Ver Mulm’s and not of a 4-karat rock their boyfriend surprised them with.
Ver Mulm has worn her golden band on her ring finger since the summer she got it nearly seven years ago. While she said she remembers making up “little corny stories about my hubby and me,” she also takes the symbolism of a purity ring very seriously.
Freshman Jackson Nickoly’s ring shows how seriously he takes his love of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. It’s a replica of the ring worn by the character Barahir. The ring brings back memories of his mother reading “The Hobbit” aloud to him when he was younger.
Rings are also a familial reminder for junior Shelby Schoon, but in a more solemn way. As the oldest child, Schoon will one day receive her grandfather’s class ring and wedding band as a story-laden family heirloom.
Family connection is also the representation of junior Carolyn Dundas’s ring. Dundas and her sister “always joked about wearing rings to remind [us] of each other,” she said. So instead of traveling pants, these sisters wear rings, Carolyn’s being a gift that her sister purchased while in Scotland visiting the Dundas castle.
As a gift for her 16th birthday, freshman Kelly Burds received a sterling silver Irish ring of a love knot and the Irish Claddagh. The Claddagh, a symbol surrounded by much folklore and no clear-cut origin, displays a hand representing friendship, a heart representing love, and a crown representing loyalty. For Burds, her ring is more than a symbol of relationship status; it is a purity ring and a tribute to her Irish heritage all wrapped up into one.
Whether gifts or heirlooms, rings across campus are symbolic and family-centered, holding meaning long before you met your significant other and much long after you’ll be divorced.
