Many of us struggle to remember changing our earrings for the first time. Yet most remember having our ears pierced for the first time, right? Oh yes, at a dismal mall in New Jersey, circa 1980, at the Piercing Pagoda. My mom didn’t know (she believed only a grown woman should have pierced ears. Old school like that). It was a joyous pain, frankly. Like a fashion rite of passage. I hid my aching ears for the next several weeks.