Love Thy Skin

To this day, I despise putting on sunscreen. It's greasy and makes me break out. I'm now paying for this aversion, dearly.

I've always cared about my appearance and like many young women (and men) thought I looked great with tanned skin. I still do! I had a great time over the years: "lying out" with high school friends over long summer days (the best rays are between 10 am and 2pm); snorkeling trips to St. John; an occasional tanning bed stint before a college sorority formal. I wore sunscreen here and there as I generally tanned well given my olive skin. It was likely some coconut smelling oil with spf 3 that sat along side my Sun In. I don't think I ever went as far as the tin foil reflector. I was sure to wear [only] spf 15 on my Caribbean snorkeling trips and maybe reapplied once a day. And who wears sunscreen at the tanning salon?

Since my escapades, I have had over 25 suspicious moles removed. It was only a matter of time before one would come back positive for melanoma. My body is a scarred mess. I want nothing more than a tan to help mask the scars and divots on my skin, but I now have a family to think of and I want to be around as long as I can. I'm on a crusade to change our addiction to the tan. Starting with my children. It is my duty to slather them with sunscreen, kicking and screaming, until they have children of their own. Next is you.