"I like shiny things but I'll marry you with paper rings," Taylor Swift croons in her song "Paper Rings." There's also a famous quote from "Devil Wears Prada" that goes, "I got the man, I don't need the flowers." Now a diamond might be forever, but it's love that makes it worth it. The point is if you have someone you love, big diamonds shouldn't matter as much. In this materialistic world, it might be difficult to believe that love can be enough, but this couple's story on Reddit will reinforce your faith in such a world. A man took to Reddit to share his love story on Valentine's Day and in times when believing in love is getting increasingly difficult, this little story might make you a little emotional. The man wrote, "7 years ago, she said 'yes' to me with this $500 fruity pebble of a diamond when I was BROKE-broke. I make $200k now. I surprised her yesterday with an upgrade for Valentine's Day, but she said 'RETURN IT,' that 'anything else would be a downgrade' because of what this little dot means to her." The man uploaded the photo of his wife's adorable "fruity pebble" ring as well as of the upgrade he got for her which she had rejected. He also added, "So I am returning this $8k upgrade and I'm taking her to Korea and Japan this winter instead for the same price." Now, if this isn't love, we don't know what is.
Reddit | u/Rpark888
The story shows that the emotion with which you give something matters more than the thing itself. The man gifted his girlfriend and now wife a tiny ring which was the best he could afford. Probably, this simple gesture must have won her heart in a way no gigantic diamond could ever win. Women are increasingly taking charge of what they want and a lot of times, love is more than enough. The couple has truly won a diamond through each other. People in the comments celebrated their love and appreciated both of them for their respective gestures. The comments also took a hilarious turn at some point and a discussion about the supremacy of "Fruity Pebbles" over cinnamon toast crunch ensued, Nonetheless, the post was an ideal celebration of love on Valentine's Day.
A Reddit user @Proud-Fox8650 wrote, "Brother you’ve found a hell of a diamond, I ain’t talking about the rocks." Another user @Ocelot859 commented on fruity pebbles and wrote, "I just wanted to take the opportunity to say that Fruity Pebbles are fucking delicious. I don't think they top Cinnamon Toast Crunch for me, but they are dangerously close." This started an argument on fruity pebbles vs cinnamon toast crunch. The Reddit user who posted the thread commented, "Wow, this was so beautiful and romantic. You're right. I think I was secretly insecure with the fact that I couldn't afford anything "bigger"/"better" but now that I look at it, that's just a byproduct of all the stupid Instagram/ consumerism culture that's plagued our generation. My wife reminded me last night that true wealth in life is outside of your financial portfolio. 'Some people are so poor, that all they have is money.'"
Image Source: Reddit | u/DCDeviant
Image Source: Reddit | u/blackamerigan
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Robin Williams performs for military men and women as part of a United Service Organization (USO) show on board Camp Phoenix in December 2007
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.