I grew up with pasty white skin. My dad is Irish-Catholic so my entire family is fair-skinned. My mom however tans really well. Her complexion is much darker. I'm somewhere in the middle. Growing up I spent a lot of time not putting on sunscreen which led to some pretty severe burns.
When I was in middle school I went to Rapids Waterpark in West Palm Beach during the midst of summertime. My mom encouraged me to wear a rashguard but I didn't think they looked cool. They were uncomfortable too. So I decided to forgo the rashguard on this field trip. I put sunscreen on in the morning but didn't reapply throughout the day. By mid-afternoon I felt the heat on my neck and shoulders. Blisters were beginning to form and my skin was drying out.
That night I went home in severe pain. I couldn't wear shirt because the pressure of the material pushing against my shoulders was unbearable. Water blisters formed. I walked around like a scarecrow for weeks. The pain was intense.
From that point on I hesitated to take off my shirt while at the beach or the pool. I applied sunscreen generously but still sometimes I forgot.
When I got older I spent a summer backpacking Europe. Many days were spent walking around in the sun. In the three weeks while in Israel, I didn't apply much sunscreen. My skin must have adapted to the enviornment because I didn't burn. Instead i actually got a bit of a tan! This was a new revelation for me because growing up I would always burn. I was feeling this new abilitity to intake UV rays.
This post was written via The Most Dangerous Writing App in response to the #dailyfreewritechallenge posted by @mariannewest. Today's (Day 127) prompt is "suburn". If you're curious about the #dailyfreewritechallenge, check out the introduction post here!
great post and beautiful photo i really liked it @mkkenny13. ... i upvote you hope you will upvote me too ♥
Sounds more fact than fiction. Nice one
fellow freewriter
I could literally feel the pain - great writing! And really interesting, too, I never would have thought skin was so "adaptable" ;) So there's hope for my super sensitive complexion after all, lol...
I can feel those blisters popping up as you describe them. Well done!
I can empathize with you completely as my skin is truly white and for me some tan is a sort of miracle! I felt the sun rays by reading your freewrite ;-)
In this ancient martial art temple, the freewrite hombu-dojo, the great soke @mariannewest put me, her sempai, in charge of communicating the powerful moves on which we will train for becoming BBB (bananafish-black-belt):
Martial art technique n. 1, single prompt option
Martial art technique n. 2, three parts freewrite: 1 2 3