“I’m going to pierce my nose.” I say to my roommate, Callie. It’s the third time I’ve told her this in the past week, but my nose remains unpierced. She takes a sip of her ginger tea and nods. 

“Okay, let’s go do it then.”

“No,” I shake my head, “I can’t do it.”

“Okay,” She takes another sip, “Don’t do it.”  

“It will look unprofessional. People will judge me. My parents will be mad. This is something that I should have done in college, not now. Not when I’m entering the professional world. Right?” I look to her for confirmation. 

“I guess so. But you want to be a creative professional, not a boring professional.” 

“I know!” I nearly scream. “So I should do it, right?” 

“You sound like a crazy person. Listen to yourself.” 

“I’m going to do it. Let’s go do it!” I stand up and put on my jacket. 

“Can I finish my tea first?” Callie asks. 

“Yes.” I sit back down. 

While Callie finished her tea, I thought about the last time I had the urge to get a piercing. I was a sophomore in college and on spring break in California with my roommates. I decided that I wanted to get my eyebrow pierced, so one afternoon, as we strolled around Pacific Beach, I stepped into a tattoo and piercing shop, and I did it.  

I looked different. Tougher, maybe. People looked at me differently. My grandmother shuddered when she saw me. “Why would you do that to your face?” She asked, shaking her head. I called my parents to tell them what I had done. They were horrified. 

“If that thing isn’t out by the time you get home, you can pay for college with your own money,” My mother said. 

So that was that. Three days later, My uncle Raiko took me to his friend’s tattoo and piercing joint, and a guy named Eddie removed the piercing for me, for no charge. 

“That was short-lived,” He chuckled. I faked a smile. 

The truth is, I wasn’t upset about having to remove my eyebrow piercing because I’m not sure that I really liked it. I’m not sure that it was really me. What I was upset about was that I felt judged, not just by strangers, but by the people that I loved, by the people that knew me, and knew that I was so much more than some girl with a pierced eyebrow.

An hour later, I walk out of Chameleon Tattoo and Body Piercing with a pierced nose. I don’t feel any different. That’s because I’m not any different. I’m still me. It’s just that now, I have a tiny little sparkly stud on my left nostril. And it feels nice. 

Maybe I should be worried about the way that I look to other people. Maybe potential employers will hesitate to hire me because of my nose ring. But do I want to work in an environment where self-expression is frowned upon, where I am judged for something so trivial? No. 

I am worried about what my parents will think. I know that they won’t be happy. But they will get over it. I think they will realize how silly it is to get mad over something so small, unimportant, and non-permanent.

There are so many things in my life that I can’t control. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. And I did it. And I’m happy. 

I pierced my nose, and I like it.