|| Unflattering Moment... ||

The summer of 2007 in Canada was a memorable one, in a negative sense of the word. Every day, my cousins and I would walk around, go shopping, and spend time with each other. We were all very close; however, I have always felt set apart from a lot of them because the way they were raised, certainly was not how I was raised. I was brought up to take my religion very seriously and follow everything that was instructed to me. My cousins were of the same religion; however, according to them, they were not “into it as much”.
All my life, I had felt content without wearing jewelry, because as a Pentecostal Protestant, that was one of the minor things we were not allowed to do. That quickly changed. One day during that summer, my cousins and I went to the mall to shop. All of a sudden, I felt myself being pushed onto a chair as a woman with a piercing gun in one hand and cleansing alcohol in the other hand stood at my side. I was extremely hesitant and desperately tried to use any and every excuse I could think of to possibly get out of this situation while straying away from my real reason— the religious one. Finally, I said, “I don’t really need my ears pierced, and plus we’re Protestant”. As my cousins exploded with laughter, I felt lower than I ever have before. I should have known they would not understand it from a religious standpoint. For a moment, I got angry at myself for being so devoted to my religion. Feeling extremely embarrassed, I gave in. After getting my ears pierced, I attempted to justify the fact that getting my ears pierced was not exactly against my religion, wearing jewelry was; knowing that once I had gotten my ears pierced, I would have to wear earrings to keep them from closing. That eventually led to wearing all types of jewelry and no longer second guessing myself when I would do it. It has become a part of who I am but is still looked down upon by religion and especially by my church.