Submission: 'I already am a minority in a way'

My friend Jon sent in an old letter he wrote to his parents.

I found this when I was cleaning out my old hard drive last year. I was a rebellious kid, but having preachers for parents forced me to be a bit more deliberate about it.

Mom and Dad,

As a fifteen year old high schooler, who is three years from being a legal adult, I feel that a nose-ring wouldn't be inapropriate for many reason's. First, High School is where people find out who they really are. Nose-rings' a temporary piercing are a expression of who I am at the moment, if that were to change, I would take it out. A guy who hangs around my school had his nose pierced for a long while and when he took it out, it was no more than a pore in his skin. The only way to find out who I really am is through trial and error. Also, body piercing is nat very unusual any more, and at Garfield we have about one person in each class with a nose ring.

I started out pretty reasonable. I was trying to make it seem like it wasn’t all that weird to get a metal bolt in my face.

Another point is that I would pay for the piercing, and you two would have to do nothing.

Trust me, this was a major selling point. My parents forbade me to dye my hair for years because they thought I wanted to do it at a salon, and it would cost a fortune. Once I started buying the stuff from the supermarket, they couldn’t care less.

As you probably remember from when you were in high school that there were things that your generation did that upset the elders, until they got used to it. You just aren't used to it, and this society today is about helping any sort of minority make it.

No one should have taught upper middle-class kids from the suburbs what minorities were.

I already am a minority in a way, I already am singled out as every person is.

Exactly. Being a minority means you’re treated just like everyone else.

Remember, this isn't a permenant thing. If your "Christian" freinds are so concerned about superficial things, I think they should remember Mary, the hooker, and the multitudes of lepers that Jesus loved no matter what. In our religion we are taught to love the "outcasts", so that takes care of your freinds.

I couldn’t keep up the diplomatic tone up for very long. I remember having a bad temper at this age, but I didn’t think it came out in print.

As for teachers, they are used to this; the 90's are full of crazy stuff. LET ME GET THE NOSE RING, I'll pay, I'll take the responsibility, I won't be singled out any more than I already am, and without some sort of output of my rage in a legal manner, there are many things I could do instead like vandalism, or all kinds of ways I can vent my frustration, or I can get a nosering, a little piece of metal through my nose that that doesn't kill people, or worship the devil, Acceptance is the answer, Remember I'm 15 now. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please please, please, please, please, please, please let me get the nosering.

I couldn’t even hold it together for six paragraphs. I just devolve into threats (If I don’t get a nose ring I’ll be a vandal! Arrrr!) and pathetic begging. I also threw in ‘acceptance is the answer’, as a kind of homage to the kind of biblical messages I thought would work on my parents. I might as well have written ‘I beseech thee!’

I don’t know if I ever actually gave them this. I never got a nose ring, though.

Thanks Jon!