"When You're Older, You'll Understand"

It's summer, so we've been busy swimming, hiking and trying to beat the Buffalo heat. In all the hustle and bustle of being on the move, I have found myself chuckling quite a few times when I think about all the times I was told, "when you are older, you will understand," or "just wait until you have kids of your own." I remember explicitly thinking to my [naive] self, "I already understand, and my opinion wouldn't change when I'm older."

BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I remember waking up in the morning, while in High School, and being completely mortified by the red monster that decided to take up residence on my face overnight. Being fair skinned, I would try and cover the little bugger up with multiple shades (and brands) of concealer. I must have looked ridiculous because I'm POSITIVE none of the concealers I used were the right shade for my ghostly white skin, nor did I apply them the right way. Sitting on the floor in my dark bedroom, in front of the full-length mirror, with the closet light on is most certainly not the ideal way to apply make-up. I was better off leaving the red bump for the whole world to see rather than having my face look like a two-year-olds paint pallet.

At one point I did ask my mom to take me to a dermatologist to which she told me no. The one or two red mounds on my face were nothing in comparison to the skin issues other people were facing. Suck it up butter-cup.

As an adult, a pimple friend pops up and the most attention it gets is an internal thought of "oh, that's just lovely," but life goes on without 10 pounds of concealer or a panic attack.

I used to wear makeup because I was afraid of what others would think of me without it. Now I wear makeup because I like the way I feel when I add a little spruce to my face, but there are far more weekends spent without makeup than there used to be.

That age-old saying, "you'll understand when you're older" applies to so many aspects of life, but it most recently applies to my desire, or lack thereof, to please other people.

I have one life to live, and I'll be damned if I'm going to live it according to the wants and desires of other people. Hell to the NOPE! If I want to rock shorts with my pasty, ghostly white legs, I'm gonna do it without a care in the world. If I want to run to the grocery store with a messy bun on my head, and absolutely zero makeup on this gloriously plain face of mine I'm gonna run, run, run to the store! If I want to wear what some might consider an obnoxious "I love my Pitbull" t-shirt, I'm gonna wear it with a HUGE smile on my face!

I'm older now, and I'm beginning to understand all the things my parents told me I would understand when I was older. I'm beginning to understand all the things that seemed like ENORMOUS roadblocks, or ginormous hurtles where actually molehills and ant dwellings compared to the BS we have to deal with as adults.