Don’t Leave Home Without It…

…in which I talk about maturing and leaving behind my “wild” past.

I didn’t have anything close to what you would call a “wild” college experience. You wouldn’t make a movie based off of my years in the dorms. Heck, you’d be hard pressed to make a flashback montage of any genuine interest, but it is what I made of it. But there were highlights and moments of unconventional adventures that do stick out from time to time, many of which I have a memento of one kind or another. Today, I left a part of my history on the bathroom counter and reduced a memento to a memory.

…in which I talk about maturing and leaving behind my “wild” past.

I didn’t have anything close to what you would call a “wild” college experience. You wouldn’t make a movie based off of my years in the dorms. Heck, you’d be hard pressed to make a flashback montage of any genuine interest, but it is what I made of it. But there were highlights and moments of unconventional adventures that do stick out from time to time, many of which I have a memento of one kind or another. Today, I left a part of my history on the bathroom counter and reduced a memento to a memory.

Fourteen years ago or so, before I’d even met Heather or dreamed of my life as it is now, four of my friends and I piled into my pale yellow 1979 Pontiac Bonneville and headed down to Dallas to visit a very popular tattoo and piercing parlor, Obscurities. Two of my friends were getting navel piercings, another was getting her nose pierced, one was just along for the ride. Not only was I the driver, being that I had the largest car, but I had also decided to get my nipple pierced. To this day, I can’t remember why exactly I had decided to do it, but it wasn’t to impress anyone, and it wasn’t on a whim. I had thought about it for a while and decided that it was something I wanted and when the opportunity arose, decided to grab it by the horns, as it were. Aside from a near mixup of which nipple was supposed to be pierced, everything went well and we all bumped and rumbled home in the car.

I’ve had that nipple piercing now for fourteen years. I’ve had several different pieces of jewelry in it, but its always been there. Heather has never known me without it. Even Ansel has never known me without it, though I don’t know that he’ll ever remember it. Its been something of a novelty; at times a gag, like a circus act; and at others a kind of virility, like a peacock plume; but regardless, its been a part of me. It was my first relic of “alternative” living. It came before alcohol and tattooing. It was a bookmark on my college years, not necessarily a turning point, but a pinpoint on a long evolution from teen to adult.

Removing it permanently was not a decision I came to lightly; in fact, its something that I’ve been debating for weeks now. I’ve had it long enough that it is a part of me, so taking it out and not putting it (or something else) back in is almost like taking off my left pinky and just leaving it behind. Its not something I really use, but can feel that its missing. My final decision came from the fact that its been a little irritated lately; and with Ansel climbing more and more, grabbing on to my chest indiscriminately, its been bothering me more often. I discussed it with Heather a couple of weeks ago when it first started bothering me, and she said that it wouldn’t bother her for it not to be there, even though, as I said, she’s never known me without it.

So now its gone… I could probably replace the jewelry tonight and undo my decision, but I don’t foresee myself doing so. It was something that, since it was under my shirt, obscured from the general public, that was obviously more for myself than everyone else and I’ve been less than happy with it of late. I know that I’ll miss it, and it will take some time to get used to it not being there, but in time, I’m sure I will learn to accept it, and myself without it.

6 replies on “Don’t Leave Home Without It…”

Yep thats why I took out my tongue piercing. It was irritating me and I decided it was time to get rid of it.

Yep thats why I took out my tongue piercing. It was irritating me and I decided it was time to get rid of it.

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