For those of you who know me well, you know that over the summer months in past years, I've always greeted fall with a new skin colour. This colour is not because of a disregard for sun safety, it's just what happens to my skin.
One summer I came back from teaching sailing at summer camp and I was full out brown. I looked like a completely different ethnicity. I was truly beautiful.
Since then, I've been enjoying the sun in monderation. I don't tan (outside or in Tanning beds), I wear copious amounts of sunblock and I try to stick to the shade whenever possible.
I've graduated from my golden years and become a full out Vampire.
So much so that I now stay indoors on days where the UV index is moderate or high and I keep a reserve bottle of sunblock in my car.
My Vampire days began with my sister. I love her to bits. She always knows how to stay safe in all scenarios and the sun is her true enemy. Wendy is white. She is even more pasty than I am which puts her at a much higher risk for sun damage. She wears sunblock all year (even in the dead of winter where all you can see is her nose, you can guarantee that it has been slathered in cream containing SPF and protects against UVA and UVB rays). I've since learned from her example and I won't leave my house without covering my skin in a greasy sheen of my Spongebob Squarepants sunblock.
Toronto has been absolutely beautiful over the last couple of weeks. We have had tons of sun and hot weather to warm all our Canadian souls after a hard spring and long winter. I have spent my summer enjoying the heat (to the best of my abilities) and occasionally walking around in the sunshine.
This means that I have been going through bottle after bottle of sunblock (and the stuff I buy ain't cheap. Well, the Spongebob stuff was technically free from my Dad who after buying it realized that it smelled like bubblegum. Buying something with the word 'block' in it is pricey).
So I'm sure you are all asking yourselves, "If Emma lives in Canada, she always covers up and she is terrified of the sun, why is this such a big deal?"
Well, this morning I noticed the ultimate pregnancy symptom. I have the "Mask of Pregnancy". Luckily, it's most noticeable in the morning but I look like I have a raccoon tan over my face. The mask of pregnancy is completely hormonal and goes away after I give birth. As for the pimples, I am going to be cursed with those until the day I die.
Anyway, as directed by all my pregnancy literature, I should always stay out of the sun, especially if I want my ski mask to go away.
Apparently the rise in my estrogen levels makes my skin extra sensitive to sun damage. What I would also like to point out to all my readers who are on the birth control pill is that this can happen to you too. The mask is all me but the permanent damage you can have from not being careful while your estrogen levels are elevated is and more often than not scary.
For me the choice is clear. I will continue to be a Vampire and embrace the greasy sunblock and ugly Tilly hat if it means that I can prevent harming my body. Now that my body is shared and will be depended on for years to come, it is my responsiblity to prevent any kind of harm to it.
For you, take a lesson from my brilliant sister and please be careful. Your body is important and if you don't look after it, it has the potential to disappoint you in ways you can't even imagine.
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