Day 73: In honor of an arbitrary milestone – my 5,000th Instaspam photo – I thought I would talk about another milestone that took place 9 years ago come September. In the fall of 2007, I shaved my head “just to see what it was like.” I’ve been told dozens of times that I must be lying; there must’ve been something more to the back story… But nope. I wanted to experience it once, and maybe the recklessness of youth made it a very non-traumatic experience. The worst physical thing that ever happened to me as a result of this action was a slight sunburn. Interestingly enough, people’s comments were far sharper than the tingle and itch of my scalp burn; one new acquaintance informed me that her husband had told her about what I had done and also said that he didn’t think I looked very good afterward. I laughed then and now, not out of bitterness but because seriously, pre-world of stylish undercuts, I definitely was under no delusion that this was supposed to be a hairstyle designed to win me conventional attractiveness points; that clearly wasn’t the point of the experiment. (I also thought it was interesting that she was so shocked by my action that she’d forego social etiquette to tell me this, haha. 😬) My parents also managed to make it all about them… My dad asked me if it was “something they had done wrong in raising me” and my mom straight-up wouldn’t talk to me for half a year. But all of that paled in comparison with the good I unexpectedly experienced. All of a sudden, an entirely different demographic of people would come up to me and tell me how cool they thought it was that I would do something so bold. I met one of my very best friends (and his entire community of friends and family) as an indirect result (fist-pound-chest for you, Timbo!). I found that for every connection I lost by being me, it seemed that I had the chance to forge a healthier relationship with someone else who chose to live life on similar terms to myself. Although I was blissfully unaware of what could happen (on the negative front), I think this impulsive life choice has had an incredible ripple effect on me. So thank you, 2007 self, for today. #TypeAinTaipei