I went to an exam school, where you have to take a test to gain entrance. The school goes from grades seven to 12, and you can either enter in seventh or ninth grade. Entering in seventh grade, it is mandatory to take Latin for four years. After my fourth year, I decided to continue my Latin journey and take it for two more years, including taking an honors poetry and AP course.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Why in the world would I choose to continue to take a dead language if it's not a requirement? Latin has a lot of root words that are helpful with SAT vocabulary and medicine/doctoral words. I wanted to continue learning about the rich culture and history of the Romans. I even got to experience first hand what I had been learning in my textbooks when I got the opportunity to travel to Rome (and Paris) in my junior year.
So, what does all this have to do with a tattoo? Well, during my senior year, while taking the AP course, we read and translated Vergil's "Aeneid." Vergil writes beautifully the epic journey of Aeneas, a Trojan traveling to Italy. It is full of love, hardship and success. In book 1, Vergil has Aeneas tell his comrades, "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit." It translates in English to "perhaps it will be pleasing to have remembered these things one day."
I always knew I wanted a tattoo. I just never knew what I wanted or where on my body to get it. One summer day, I decided to get that quote tattooed on my upper back. It was kind of a last minute thing, but that quote stuck with me, so I decided to get it. I found it to be relevant, especially with the transition from high school to college, and how I would not forget my friends and all of our memories and laughs we have had once we all went our separate ways. In a sense, it is a tribute to my amazing friends. It also represents how I like to remember and look back on all my life experiences and how it has shaped me into the person I am today.
As for my experience actually getting it, I was obviously nervous since it was my first tattoo. My tattoo artist did a little sample of how it felt before she actually started tattooing me, and I thought it would have felt worse than it actually did! I got the quote split into two lines in the middle part of my upper back, and when she was tattooing one side, it felt perfectly fine, but when she was doing the other side, it hurt just a bit. I didn't cry, though, so that's a plus! I've gotten my nose pierced twice and my industrial in my ear once, and I cried when getting those, and the pain level was excruciating for me, so that was what I was expecting leading up to getting my tattoo done. I was not expecting it to be nearly painless, and I definitely want to get more in the near future!
