“My husband doesn't have a lot, neither of us do. We scrape and scrape to pay bills and put food in our bellies, but after almost 2 years of dating we decided that we couldn't wait anymore, so we didn't.
I wasn't even thinking about rings, I just wanted to marry my best friend, but he wouldn't have it. He scraped up just enough money to buy me two matching rings from Pandora.
Sterling silver and CZ to be exact. That's what sits on my ring finger, and I am so in love with them.
While we were purchasing my rings however, another lady that was working there came over to help the lady selling them to us.
She said, 'Y'all can you believe that some men get these as engagement rings? How pathetic.'
When she said that I watched my now husband's face fall. He already felt bad because he couldn't afford the pear-shaped set that so obviously had my heart and covered my Pinterest page.
He already felt like a failure, asking me again and again 'Are you sure you'll be happy with these? Are you sure this is okay?'
He was so upset at the idea of not making me happy enough and of me not wanting to marry him because my rings didn't cost enough money or weren't flashy enough.
Old Ariel would have ripped that woman a new one.
Mature Ariel said, 'It isn't the ring that matters, it is the love that goes into buying one that is.' We bought the rings and left.
Y'all I would have gotten married to this man if it had been a 25¢ gum ball machine ring.
When did we fall so far to think the only way a man can truly love a woman is if he buys her $3,000+ jewelry and makes a public decree of his affection with said flashy ring?
Sure they are nice, sure the sentiment is wonderful and I'm not trying to cut down any of your experiences, but when did it come to all that? Why do material possessions equate love??
My husband was so afraid of me not wanting him because he couldn't afford a piece of jewelry. He was afraid that the love I have for him would pale because he couldn't afford the wedding set I wanted.
The world has made it this way and it is so sad.
Ultimately we couldn't wait any longer…so we eloped.
I've never been this happy in my life and I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else ever. Here I am, Court-House married, $130 ring set, the love of my life by my side and happier than I could ever imagine.”
Credit: Ariel Desiree McRae
“One must say Yes to life and embrace it whenever it is found — and it is found in terrible places; nevertheless, there it is.
For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.” —James Baldwin
Did you ever hear this story?
This Florida State football player, Travis Rudolph,
spotted a little boy sitting alone during his visit with
the team to a middle school.
He went over on his own
to sit with the boy.
When the boy’s mother found out she wrote a tear jerking thank you letter.
This little fella is autistic and doesn't have many friends so it made his day.
I saw a snippit about this on ESPN and have seen nothing about it on social media.
Let's all make more of an effort to spread positive things like this!!!!”
UPDATE: Remember the “Karen Goes Crazy” video 2 yrs ago where a woman lunged at a Nigerian woman at a mall and then began to break down? Remember how the internet made fun of this woman and called her a "Karen" endlessly?
It turns out that Abigail Elphick is disabled. She was the woman who broke down crying after trying to lunge at Ijeoma Ekenta. She lives at a complex with residents who are intellectually and developmentally impaired. At the time the internet blamed the incident on the color of the other woman's skin, and pushed to have Abigail Elphick fired from her internship.
Following the incident, Ijeoma Ekenta raised $104,000 in a GoFundMe, to "sue the Karen," blaming the incident on the color of her skin. In July that lawsuit began and this week new documents show that Elphick actually is disabled with a history of mental problems.
“I was horrified,” Tom Toronto, president of Bergen County’s United Way, which runs the residential complex where Elphick lives, said. "It was a total loss of perspective and proportion. She has a disorder. She has anxiety. She had a meltdown. Then the world we live in took over and it became something entirely different than what it actually was.” he continued.
Seeing a 1-minute-long video doesn't always tell the full story. Stop labelling people without knowing their history.