Holes in My Ears

Once upon a time, I was a 12-year-old girl, and it seemed like all of my friends were getting their ears pierced. I, however, was not. Every time I would ask, my dad would say, "If God wanted you to have holes in your ears, He would have put them there in the first place," and that was that. Eventually, about the time I turned 14, I quit asking. The years came and went, I turned into even more of a tomboy than I already was, and I developed a healthy fear of needles. I no longer cared that I couldn't wear cute earrings. Then my lovely sister-in-law made it her project to turn me into a girl (thanks a lot, Megan). She got me to cut my hair in an actual style, start wearing heels, and get pedicures (seriously this time, thanks, Megan). Then she decided I needed to get my ears pierced. By this time, I was kind of back to wishing I could wear earrings, but there was that pesky fear of needles standing in my way. Ah, but it's not a needle, it's a gun, and it just shoots the earring through your ear. Yeah, that idea helped; now I was scared of guns shooting through my earlobes. But Megan told me that's what she was getting me for Christmas, and I started thinking I might really like getting holes in my ears—finally.

So the Thursday before Christmas, we went to our local Claire's, where I was very happy to see that the ear-piercing person was a bit older than 16, and I got these beauties shot through my earlobes:

I'm pretty sure I was more nervous than any of the 8-year-olds who usually sit in that chair. Megan was laughing at me, the Claire's worker was laughing at me, and I was laughing at myself. But I actually went through with it—and they even gave me a lollipop because I was so brave. And you know what? I love getting up in the morning or catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror and seeing sparkly things in my ears, and I can't wait to try putting all sorts of sparkly things there. This is gonna be fun!