DIY: how piercing my nose taught me life lessons

Almost a month ago, I pierced my nose. The night before I was going to go visit my sister in Minneapolis, I threw all caution out the window and pierced my nose. I did everything myself and have learned more lessons about life than I ever could imagine. I'll explain everything step by step.

This was not planned.

Sometimes you have to go with your gut instinct and do it. Piercing my nose is against my school's dress code as well as something that is severely frowned upon by the people that raised me. But I wanted to do this. I've wanted to pierce my nose for a couple years now and was going to wait until I moved to Chicago. But I got this crazy idea in my head and I went ahead and did it. I didn't hesitate about it. Was it a smart idea? No. But not all decisions that you make in life are smart. I cling to my spontaneity and will continue to do so.

I pierced my nose by myself.

To do something right, you have to do it yourself. I could have gone to a piercer or gotten one of my friends to do it. But I knew that if I was going to go through all this hassle, I was going to do it myself. I was going to put myself through the pain that I knew this would cause to get my finished product. I'm a very independent woman and, if I can do something on my own, I am going to do it. I've stopped relying on other people because, at the end of the day if something fails, I only have myself to blame. The only person I have to answer to is the one in the mirror.

I accidentally went too far and started bleeding.

I hit the side of my septum while piercing my nose. If you go too far with things, sometimes you bleed. Sometimes physically, but many times it's metaphorical. There's a fine line between pushing yourself and ending up hurt. And that night I went too far.

I got the stud in just fine

There's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment you get when you see the finished product. I've never been more proud. I sat there staring at myself in the mirror thinking, "Did I really do that?" Sometimes the awe and shock of what you just did takes time to set in. It didn't really set in that I really did pierce my nose by myself for a couple weeks. I was so giddy every time I saw myself and I felt so amazed.

The healing process

This has been a long and tedious one. The first few days, it hurt to move my nose. I kept bashing it and hitting it while washing my face. Even if you're proud of something and feel accomplished because of it, you can always still have that lingering pain. You have the lingering "what if"s and the opportunity costs you gave up because of every decision you make. The next couple weeks were hassle-free. Everything went according to plan. Calm seas and blue skies. But, just like any situation, it was the calm before the storm. It's a bit infected at the moment, but nothing I can't fix. You hit forks in the road and snags in your life. It's unavoidable and you just have to deal with it. But the way you deal with it is also important. I decided to hit this head on and fix it right now. There was pain, blood, and a lot of time, but everything is looking better now. Fix the problems as soon as you can or they're going to haunt you for longer than you want. Everything needs time to heal, some things just take longer than others.

Life is complicated and life is short, but it's the little choices in life you make that end up making the biggest impact.