Summer Sunburn Misery

*This is a fun repost from a few years ago. I am still in Israel and you will hear more about that soon! 🙂 

I’m really white. Not the Starbucks frappuccino, Ugg Boots, and leggings type of white, but my skin is so pale that when I go outside I’m being cooked like a pizza. I have always had my run ins with the sun, but let me tell you about the summer from a few years ago.

I feel like I should have known better about protecting myself since skin cancer runs in my family and I have had some lesions cut out for prevention, but you live and learn.

Then this happened when I was working softball working camp:

The sun double burned me on the neck and legs. I wore long socks with shorts, but the sun still got me in the space between. Now, I have a sliver of a tan in the crack of my knee on my left leg where I got burned the worst.

Now after all of this you would think that I would just never go out in the sun with my skin uncovered ever again? Right? Wrong.

Now I’ve really learned my lesson. It’s a real hassle sometimes to put on multiple layers, but that’s something that I have to do to keep from turning red in .2 seconds of being outside.

Now you tell me, ” T this is why you should get a base tan.” and to that I tell you “NO!”. I already have my permanent hand tan and I’d just rather not take the time to damage the rest of my skin cell DNA.

My body reacts a certain way to the sun for a reason and when I’m sun safe, I’m happy.

Because I totally *much sarcasm* go swimming so much I bought this long sleeve swimsuit and swim pants from the internet. The top is from somewhere in China that I got off Amazon and the bottoms (which look like leggings, but I promise they are made for swimming) are from a modesty swim suit website.

This outfit was THE GREATEST THING EVER when I went swimming at my friend’s birthday party.  I didn’t have to worry about the sun and I had fun at the pool. How great is that?

Even though I felt like I looked like a total mom in it, I could not be any happier being outside.

Circumstances are different for everybody, but it is important to become comfortable in your own skin and ignore everyone’s crap. You have to be able make yourself happy before you can make anyone else happy.

It definitely took a lot of time to get comfortable wearing pants and long sleeve shirts all the time around other people growing up. Not because I was physically uncomfortable, but because people would always say: “Aren’t you hot?” or “You’re so pale, you should get some sun.”

Now if I just tell someone who asks why I do what I do they are like “Oh, that makes sense”.

Strange thing that in the 115 degree Arizona heat I promise having my full body covered doesn’t make my body temperature any hotter than yours. It sometimes even has a cooling effect.

Moral is to get comfortable with yourself and always reapply sunscreen after 1.5 hours.

What is your worst sunburn story? Let me know in the comments below!

xoxo

T

This is a repost from a few years ago!