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25 Nov
Louise Jones had always done everything by the book. Until she suddenly found herself under the needle.
I got my nose pierced last week. I also graduated, moved to London, and started a new job. Yes, all in the same week. Yes, I’m tired.
Graduating, moving to the capital, and starting a career seemed inevitable to me. I’d worked hard for it all. But the nose piercing? Totally on a whim. I was meant to stay in bed all day, in my new London pad, but I ended up in Brighton in a dark, dingy, hidden-away room getting stabbed in the nose by a lady with enough piercings to cause a magpie feeding frenzy.
This was hardly ‘on-brand’. I guess you could say I have always been the notorious good girl. I’m a high achiever. I was a straight-A student, I won a national writing competition at 17, I was an Olympic torchbearer for London 2012, and I nabbed myself a literary agent at 19. I was pretty clean-cut with medium-length straight hair (easy to maintain) that I only dyed once in school (wash in, wash out, obviously). I had one pair of earlobe piercings, and my sexual exploits were non-existent until I went to university.
But, once I was at university, things went a bit downhill, and in many respects I completely lost control of who I was and who I wanted to be. My ‘good girl’ persona became a lifeless one, like I went the wrong way up a hill and got stuck in mud with no idea of what to do. I was exhausted.
Somehow, I dragged myself out the mud and pathetically waved a white flag as I handed in my final ever assignment. I began taking medication and swore to take better care of myself, starting with taking back control. I cut my hair short, smothered it in blonde highlights, and went back to square one: who the hell am I now?
The answer was a girl with a nose piercing. It wasn’t to achieve anything, it wasn’t to please anybody, it wasn’t to prove something. I wanted it, so I got it. I wanted control, so I got it. I wanted to do something without reason, so I did. I wanted to surprise people, maybe even annoy them. Yes, I’m a still good girl, but I’m a good girl rocking a nose piercing. Please don’t tell my dad.
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