In January, I decided to get my ears pierced again. The upcoming weddings of two of my best friends nudged me in a grow-up-and-be-a-real-girl direction even though I had previously thought I'd never care about getting my ears pierced again. I never really thought it would enhance my appearance at all and the whole idea of one more accessory trend to keep up with was slightly overwhelming. But, for some reason, I changed my mind.
Coming from a family of all girls, any girlie milestone was made ceremonial and drastically more dramatic than in most families. And when I say all, I do mean the big one too. That momentous occasion even deemed balloons! Though I think I actually bought into my mother's hype for each event, whereas my older sisters were probably too cool. The set legal age for the Montgomery girls to get their ears pierced was nine, and I think I was counting down the days until my that birthday. As wise as my mother is, I think she missed a few very important signs about my character traits that year. Earlier in the year she told me long hair was a privilege and if I continued to only brush the front and hide the rest in a knotty ponytail, she would cut it off. Let's just say that by the time I got my ears pierced I had very short hair and of course my ears got infected.
Right before my eighteenth birthday, my roommate and boyfriend suggested I get them pierced again. Clearly I was much more responsible and clean nearly a decade later. I went and got them pierced again but when winter came and I had to walk across campus in seriously freezing weather I started to rethink having metal, cold rods in my ears. It felt like I had icicles in my earlobes every time I stepped outside. I was right about being more responsible, but I didn't anticipate me being a big baby.
So, here I am, further than I've ever been in the ear piercing saga though I clearly have not overcome the baby tendencies I had years ago. I was afraid I'd chicken out on the whole process so I asked my best friend, Margaret, to come with me to get them pierced. Besides the fact that I was given a teddy bear to hug at the kiosk nearly in the middle of the mall and that Margaret's three year old daughter was calmer than me, I did not chicken out. I was compulsive about cleaning my ears...actually had the solution with me just about everywhere I went. I have made it through the six weeks of establishing a nice clean hole and it is safe to take the starter earrings out. Actually, they were ready two weeks ago. For some reason....I was scared to take them out.
Finally, I decided I was going to bring the new earrings to work and on my lunch break I would give it a go. As I'm standing in front of the mirror in our back bathroom trying to take out the starter earrings, I notice my ear getting really red and I could feel myself getting really hot. Finally the damn thing came lose. I clean my ear and the new earring and attempt to put the new earrings in. It's not working...I can't seem to clasp the earring on the back side. I start to sweat and my chest turns bright red. I'm having a full on panic attack and irrationally fear that in the time it takes me to secure my earrings, the hole will close. Of course that didn't logically make sense but that's what was going on in my mind. Finally I just decide to abort the whole damn mission and put the starter earrings back in and wait until Margaret is around to help. Yes, I acknowledge that I am a really big baby.
Over this past weekend, I decided to give it another shot. This time was actually super successful, in the fact that the starter earrings were removed and the hoops my sister bought me 7 years ago were securely dangling. Well, they were for at least 10 minutes until I started to feel really self conscious. THEY LOOKED HUGE! Every time I looked in the mirror all I saw were earrings! Big silver, eye catching earrings. I'm sure that's the whole point of earrings....but I'm just not used to it. I think I'm going to have to start out with a smaller pair of hoops and work my way up because I seriously felt that they were taking over my face! So right before I left the house, I ran back to the bathroom and changed them back to my safe little starter earrings. But, I do feel more confident about changing them myself...so that's a step in the right direction. I just need some "training wheel" hoops to ease into this whole girlie thing.
Coming from a family of all girls, any girlie milestone was made ceremonial and drastically more dramatic than in most families. And when I say all, I do mean the big one too. That momentous occasion even deemed balloons! Though I think I actually bought into my mother's hype for each event, whereas my older sisters were probably too cool. The set legal age for the Montgomery girls to get their ears pierced was nine, and I think I was counting down the days until my that birthday. As wise as my mother is, I think she missed a few very important signs about my character traits that year. Earlier in the year she told me long hair was a privilege and if I continued to only brush the front and hide the rest in a knotty ponytail, she would cut it off. Let's just say that by the time I got my ears pierced I had very short hair and of course my ears got infected.
Right before my eighteenth birthday, my roommate and boyfriend suggested I get them pierced again. Clearly I was much more responsible and clean nearly a decade later. I went and got them pierced again but when winter came and I had to walk across campus in seriously freezing weather I started to rethink having metal, cold rods in my ears. It felt like I had icicles in my earlobes every time I stepped outside. I was right about being more responsible, but I didn't anticipate me being a big baby.
So, here I am, further than I've ever been in the ear piercing saga though I clearly have not overcome the baby tendencies I had years ago. I was afraid I'd chicken out on the whole process so I asked my best friend, Margaret, to come with me to get them pierced. Besides the fact that I was given a teddy bear to hug at the kiosk nearly in the middle of the mall and that Margaret's three year old daughter was calmer than me, I did not chicken out. I was compulsive about cleaning my ears...actually had the solution with me just about everywhere I went. I have made it through the six weeks of establishing a nice clean hole and it is safe to take the starter earrings out. Actually, they were ready two weeks ago. For some reason....I was scared to take them out.
Finally, I decided I was going to bring the new earrings to work and on my lunch break I would give it a go. As I'm standing in front of the mirror in our back bathroom trying to take out the starter earrings, I notice my ear getting really red and I could feel myself getting really hot. Finally the damn thing came lose. I clean my ear and the new earring and attempt to put the new earrings in. It's not working...I can't seem to clasp the earring on the back side. I start to sweat and my chest turns bright red. I'm having a full on panic attack and irrationally fear that in the time it takes me to secure my earrings, the hole will close. Of course that didn't logically make sense but that's what was going on in my mind. Finally I just decide to abort the whole damn mission and put the starter earrings back in and wait until Margaret is around to help. Yes, I acknowledge that I am a really big baby.
Over this past weekend, I decided to give it another shot. This time was actually super successful, in the fact that the starter earrings were removed and the hoops my sister bought me 7 years ago were securely dangling. Well, they were for at least 10 minutes until I started to feel really self conscious. THEY LOOKED HUGE! Every time I looked in the mirror all I saw were earrings! Big silver, eye catching earrings. I'm sure that's the whole point of earrings....but I'm just not used to it. I think I'm going to have to start out with a smaller pair of hoops and work my way up because I seriously felt that they were taking over my face! So right before I left the house, I ran back to the bathroom and changed them back to my safe little starter earrings. But, I do feel more confident about changing them myself...so that's a step in the right direction. I just need some "training wheel" hoops to ease into this whole girlie thing.
