As I was growing up we had a family friend who had suffered with Melanoma Skin Cancer. She would tell me her story time and time again and if she ever saw that I had even a minor sunburn, she would remind me of the importance of wearing sunscreen. Then, in highschool, I went through a minor tanning bed phase – honestly, I’m not proud of it. But she would get so upset when she could tell that I was going to the tanning bed. At the time, I really didn’t think anything of it… I just wanted some color to my skin and I never stayed really long. Once I was in college for a year or two, I decided that going to the tanning bed really was stupid. I was wasting money and hurting myself, so I quit right away. Ever since then, I’ve never really worked on a good tan or anything, but I also haven’t been great about putting on enough sunscreen and putting it on frequently enough. One good thing I started doing many years ago was using a moisturizer with SPF in it though, and that has been a must have for me!
So what prompted this SAFE SUN post??
Yesterday, as you know, I had my first day off in 15 days and my roomies were going to the beach. Now, honestly, I’m not a huge beach person, I don’t go very often and it’s not my favorite place to vacay, but occasionally I find myself there. Well, I applied my sunscreen like I should, and tried reapplying at one point, but since I was covered in sand it was so hard to do a good reapply. By the time I got home, I knew I had a sunburn. Right then and there, I decided it was time to start taking care of my skin because I don’t want to end up leathery and wrinkled from something that could have been so easily prevented. I’ve seen Cosmo’s ad in magazines for a while now about practicing safe sun and I have decided to join in this! I’m going to buy a bracelet that will help remind me of protecting my skin.
I really don’t see anything positive about laying out or going to the beach right now… 1. I always, ALWAYS, get a nasty tan line, I don’t know what it is, but I can never tan evenly 2. I don’t want to age badly and end up with leathery skin 3. pale skin can be just as beautiful as bronzed skin 4. I am protecting myself from skin cancer by not doing that and that in turn protects my future family from possibly losing me at an early age.
I’m going to pay the price right now for my sunburn and wait for the pain to go away, but at this moment, I’m making a commitment to practice safe sun and to try to always wear SPF even if it’s winter time and I’m not outside much or if it’s summer and I’m just driving from point A to point B… there are numerous ways you can harm yourself by not protecting against the sun and a lot of those ways are ones that you don’t even think of regularly!!
I’d like to hear your story- How do you feel about tanning/laying out/or tanning beds? Do you practice safe sun or is that bronze look more important and you know you can suffer the consequences later? Do you have a personal story of how skin cancer has affected your life??
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