Featuring my nose ring

My rebellious stage came (not surprisingly) in college, when I was away from the 'rents and old enough to do ridiculous things to myself in the name of originality. Fortunately, I feel I am level-headed enough not to have done anything I regret too much -- although dying my hair black and then trying to bleach it back to a light brown was a very, very hard lesson to learn.

My first act of rebellion came during spring break of my freshman year. Oddly enough, I was back at home when I decided I would finally go through what I had been telling myself for ages I would do -- pierce my nose.

Amber, one of my good friends, and I set out for the piercing parlor on a sunny, March afternoon. She was getting her lip pierced, I was determined to pierce my nose. I got it done and went back home, feeling like a badass. (I often wonder where that ballsy, badass Marcy went nowadays. I feel like such a chicken.) It was a few hours before my parents realized that no, it wasn't a big zit I had on my nose. It was an emerald green stone that was in my nose through the hole I'd had made in it.

In any case, fast forward to four years later, when I'm trying to become a productive, working member of society. While no one I've ever worked for has ever complained or said a thing about my nose ring, I'm starting to wonder if it's something I should keep. I really, really like it -- in spite of my many piercings, it's still one of my favorites. But I wonder how parents and professional sources see it. To the naysayers that dislike me and think I'm incompetent, is the nose ring a symbol of my youth and inexperience? I know I look young and that my hair, makeup and wardrobe don't help much, but is the nose ring the final hammer in the "professional Marcy" coffin?

I've opted to try and find the tiniest nose ring possible, but I wonder if maybe it's just time for me to say goodbye to it as well as my originality. Maybe it's time to give in to the looming, cookie-cutter image I'm destined to become because of my job but avoided for so long.

I hate business attire and the corporate world. Colored, full-sleeve dragon tattoos and lip rings for everyone, I say!