Sometime in grade nine I got my left ear pierced a second time. I went with my best friend Kimberley Turner, who had lots of pierces in each ear. Her mother was young and pretty cool, and didn't mind Kim getting her ears pierced. My mother had expressed her disapproval of multiple ear pierces on more than one occasion, but I didn't specifically ask her permission to get this pierce, so I wasn't explicitly defying her, although of course I knew she wouldn't be pleased. It was the very first time I had ever defied my parents, at the ripe old age of 13.

Kim and I went to Eaton's to get the pierce. We split the cost of getting a pair of piercings; we chose studs with the December birthstone, blue topaz, because Kim's birthday is in December and because I liked the stone better then my birthstone, peridot.

The pierce (with a gun, of course) didn't hurt too badly, although my ear felt very hot for an hour or so afterwards. When my mother saw it (a few days later) she asked "Who gave you permission to do that?" I said "Nobody", and that was that. Who knew rebellion was so easy?