On Piercings and The Universe

I remember clearly when I first got my ears pierced. I had just completed ten years on earth, and my parents had spent the night arguing about it. My mother's stance was that it was an important rite of passage and my Dad felt we could just skip that rite altogether, in complete denial that I was growing up. I was just excited to not have to wear clip-on earring anymore, and nodded madly in agreement when my Dad finally turned to me and asked if I really wanted this. Off we went to the local pharmacy or "apteek" in the centre of Mafikeng town, where a Studex white stone stud was placed in a stapler-like object and shot into my ear. I remember howling in pain and my Dad saying, "This is why I said we don't need this!" My mother was nowhere to be seen, she had probably walked out to do other shopping and Dad comforted me and bought me an ice cream cone to calm me down. Once the pain subsided, I couldn't stop admiring myself. No pain, no gain, right? Of course, there were limitations at school on the kind of earrings one was allowed to wear, but the teen years was all about the teen "ears" (sorry, had to). When I started at Uni, shortly after my 18th birthday, I was finally ready to get my nose pierced. I don't remember when the fascination began. My button nose was a much discussed topic in our family. I'd get advice constantly on how to massage the bridge of my nose in an upward motion to straighten it. Apparently my aunt once had a nose like mine which she shaped to sharp regality all while studying for her medical boards. It's likely that I hoped the piercing would be the main attraction of my face, and not my nose. Who knows!

Any way, it wasn't hard to find a bunch of friends who were in support of this daring venture as, by their standards, I was already far behind in the piercing game. Off we headed to Bruma Flea Market on a sunny Saturday morning. Now downtown Johannesburg didn't have the most reliable public transport system in the late 90s and we waited close to 3 hours before we decided to give up and head back when we saw another group from our Res headed to the same bus stop, also hoping to go to the same flea market. They came back later that evening and said the bus arrived within minutes of us leaving! Another opportunity came up for us to go the flea market, except this time, after getting there I found every stall was open except for the piercing stall - a crumpled paper sign said "Closed on account of Jewish Holiday". "Argh!!!" I mentally yelled into the chaos of the otherwise bustling flea market. I was so disappointed as I had even got myself the tiny white stone nose stud, and took this act of the Abrahamic God as a sign that my blob of a nose was not meant to be pierced, that it simply would not suit me, and that the Universe was in fact telling me, "No. Get over it. Find another dream." You'd be shocked at how quickly I accepted this revelation as fact and moved on, always looking wistfully at women with pierced noses and thinking to myself, "What a pity the Universe said I couldn't...". I took on a second ear piercing at a stone jewellery stall in Spencer Plaza, Chennai a few years later but that excitement was very short lived as I barely noticed it myself with my mad curls framing my head.

Fast forward 20 years, and we're saying a teary goodbye to the city of Melbourne. I would often look forlornly at body piercing stores at the mall, STILL telling myself with a sigh that the Universe denied me this one thing. One day though, on a whim, with a trolley laden with groceries, I walked into Skin Kandy at Fountain Gate Mall in Narre Warren and asked for a nose piercing. I told myself it would probably won't suit me, but I wanted to take away something to remember this city by. My husband didn't quite believe I would go through with it. It happened so very quickly, though I was quite nervous, and kept apologizing to the lady waiting patiently for me to calm down. Once it was done, I couldn't believe the wonderful difference it made to my face! What had I denied myself for 20 years simply because my resolve to get pierced failed...twice? I had quit so easily and I was quite irritated with myself because it suddenly dawned on me that I took many life decisions for the most ridiculous of reasons:  "The Universe", "Fate", "Destiny", "Twas Meant To Be". I had to ask myself, did I ever want ANY thing badly enough to fight for it? But I'm still young, and God-willing there's still some way to go for me to make sound decisions based on reality, than on the unknown (fingers crossed, throws salt over shoulder).