by Harry Breault ’16
Never the twain could meet for long, my senior ring and I; no matter what I tried, I couldn’t keep that small band of stainless steel with me. When I first wore it on my finger, the short path from hand to mouth left it chewed and bent. I tried it on a chain around my neck; the chain snapped. Then somehow, during my grocery store shift, I flung it into the dairy case; when it turned up three weeks later, I was overjoyed. But how on earth could I hang on to this little metal token, this sweet, small connection to home?
As I walked along a Cape Cod jetty on Senior Beach Day, the ring made its final departure—into the sea. I swore then that I needed a more permanent reminder of the place that made me who I am.
A little over a year later, a tattoo artist inked a small green chameleon onto my bony ankle. Most days, I forget it’s there, just as I don’t always think of the place off of Main Street where I learned how to be me. But when I need to, I run my finger along it and think of the opening words of the song “Concord, Concord”: “These when we leave will be with us forever.” To my scandalized grandmother’s great chagrin, this couldn’t be more true.
Harry Breault ’16 graduated from Haverford College in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He works at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in Boston, where he says he is “growing and making a difference all at once.”
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Do you have a class ring story to contribute to CA’s Centennial Celebration? Email communications@concordacademy.org to share it.
After making a habit of losing his CA class ring, he replaced it with a chameleon tattoo.
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