Pain: It makes you feel alive

This is quoted from who else but our beloved Mr. Guohao. Well I thought it’s an apt title for this entry because I pierced my ears today.

Gasp! Yes if that’s your reaction, trust me I’m still feeling the shock too.

Priya and everyone else had been trying to persuade me to pierce my ears and we all know how persuasive priya is. I was still semi-joking when I told them my decision on Tuesday but they were all so happy and excited. It’s really uncanny but they (Priya, Wenkai and Zhihui) had EXACTLY the same reaction:
1) “Really?! Yay!�
2) Clap hands in excitement
3) “Do you need me to come along to hold your hands?�

All my life when people asked me why I didn’t have ear holes I’d just give a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders. It came to the stage where out of habit I just didn’t think about getting them. Another serious consideration is also the fact that I have an irrational fear of needles.

So my enthusiastic friends arranged Thursday to be D-day and on Wednesday I got cold feet. I told my mum hoping she would wave my fears away, so imagine my horror when she said,� Go for it lar! If you’re not afraid of the pain.� Her words kept repeating in my head and I had this mental image of a giant needle poking through my ear on automatic replay. I wasn’t surprised when I took a long time to fall asleep that night. And of course I had nightmares about it AND I had Early Morning Awakening.

I went to school preparing my speech about chickening out. The moment I reached, I heard the terrific news, “Harrison’s is selling for $30 at yunnan. Let’s go buy today!� (The new edition is $130 so you can imagine how ecstatic I am.) The giamness in me made me forget all my fears until wenkai told me that she’s not giving us a lift there if I’m not piercing my ears. If this was an anime, there would be lightning drawn in the background, I would have watery eyes and sad music would be heard but in real life, I bravely kept my fears to myself. As Leonard Tan would say: xi1 shen1 xiao3 wo3 wan2 cheng2 da4 wo3.

So the plan was that after buying I would go Bugis Junction to get the deed done. Priya had to leave early so she came over to me, wished me luck and gave me a hug, effectively quadrupling my fear and leaving me in shock. I left wenkai and zhihui to admonish priya for scaring me while I quietly try to plan my escape route. A million thoughts flashed through my mind at the speed of light. “What if I just run off? Oh no, my keys are in the car. Maybe I can just run and run and wait for them to give up hope? Oh damn, with Harrison’s weighing me down the fastest I can manage is probably 30cm/s.�

Well, we finished lunch and I’m still left with zero plans. So we went in search of jewellery shops. I was so scared I could feel my heart beating away and the chicken pasta I ate transformed into butterflies in my stomach. One thing you must know about me is that when I’m scared I’ll reach out and grab onto the nearest thing in the vicinity, usually somebody’s hand. And the more afraid I am, the weirder the thing I grab (eg. sleeve, bag, keychain, ear). In this case, it was Zhihui’s hair.

So there I am holding on to hair when we trudged into Goldheart (expensive I know but it’s the only place in the whole bloody building that does ear-piercing). The next few minutes were a blur for me and the next thing I know I was in The Chair. My eyes bulged out like fishballs when the woman showed me The Instrument so I shut my eyes tight and held onto Wenkai’s hand for dear life.

And OUCH! I now know all my nice friends were just trying to comfort me when they said no pain because it was really quite painful. Before anyone could say,� One ear only please� the woman changed sides, Wenkai’s hand was replaced by Zhihui’s hand and my other ear was done.

I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was this guy sitting opposite clapping. So I managed a weak smile and raised a hand in gratitude. I was still a bit numb from shock when I paid but when we left the shop all my senses returned and “Hip hip hooray!� I felt like shouting. But I just gave my friends a hug because they were really very supportive and comforting (thanks, you guys).

I still can’t believe I did it though. Every time I’m caught unawares in a mirror, my first reaction would be “eek what’s that on my ear?�, then I’ll smile inanely and think, �So proud of myself for overcoming my fear.� Liang was flabbergasted when I told him what I did but totally adored my ears now and wanted to buy me big hoop earrings. And my mum (remember her? The one who gave me the nightmares?) just said, “Two only ah? I thought you’d come back with four on each ear.�

Well, who knows? Maybe next year.