Feel the burn Baby

Ahhh Hawaii, it’s beautiful there. I’ve been lucky, I’ve been several times!
I can remember it like it was yesterday!

I was so excited, I was 13, and I was going to Hawaii during the summer. All my friends were green with envy. I was going to get that killer tan before all my friends did! This was WAY before you could fake and bake.
I couldn’t wait to get there! We had so many things planned and all I care about was being out in the sun! And I had just gotten an awesome new bikini to show off. Although I was only 13 so it was “conservative” and was approved by mom!

I could snorkel…I would be getting some good rays on my back as I snorkeled. Walking around on the beach I would be getting rays from every side because of the reflection off the water. I could lounge at the pool. Oh I had it all figured out! And I had a week to accomplish it. And then we were headed off to Maui for another week! I’m telling you, I had it all figured out!

Sun tan lotion? We don’t need no stinking sun tan lotion!

I couldn’t wait to get to the hotel to change so I could put on my new bikini and head to the beach and catch some rays before dinner…..I could get some serious color and my new outfits would look awesome!

So off to the beach we went….laying on my stomach, propped up, checking out all the guys on the beach. Mom laying next to me….stinking of coconuts because of the sun tan lotion she had put on. She says to me, you should put some of this on, you don’t realize how different the sun is here and you will get burned.

*eye roll* WHATEVER Mom, I am getting tan!
No you are not, you are getting red, like you are burning.
Well when you look at your pale Irish skin after you have been in the sun for a while, you do NOT see red…you see a nice even tan. It’s everyone else that sees you glowing!

At one point my mom finally wiped on some sun tan lotion on the back of my leg, just about knee level and I FREAKED out….literally. JEEZE MOM!!! DON’T!!!!!!!!!!! And I wiped it off.
That was day 1.

I think I was out in the sun for 3 hours. I flipped once or twice…I can’t remember that!
I showered and was going to go to dinner and the only part of me that wasn’t completely FRIED to a crisp was that one spot where she slapped on suntan lotion and the parts where my bikini was.

So then in all my misery and pain my mom runs down to the store in the hotel and gets aloe vera gel to put on….ohhhh that felt so good….until I laid on the bed before it dried and the sheet had to be peeled off of me! I have never felt a pain such as that! And because it was summer, it was hot and humid outside….I could hardly stand to be outside anywhere and that snorkeling trip….yeah I was in my bikini….along with a HUGE heavy shirt as well as a PILE of sunscreen…..and I was still in pain! It was like being a vampire in the myth that the sun will burn the skin….I couldn’t stand to be in any sun!

And as it healed, it all peeled right off…..so I think I came back with a slight change in color, not much of one! And a new found respect for the sun….not that it stopped me….I still went to the beach, I still went surfing, I still laid out in the sun every chance I got….with baby oil, and I was tan, after my token burn at the beginning of every summer, which is why I have this lovely skin cancer. Now if I could just go back and slap my teenage self!
I think if I would have gone to the doctor that day in Hawaii they would have found 2nd or 3rd degree burns on my skin.
Now….my motto…..white/non burnt/non tanned skin is beautiful! I don’t go in the sun….I do put sunscreen on every day! And as much as I would love to throw on a bikini and lay around by the pool like I used to…..I don’t.



Inspired by MamaKat