Dodging Sunbeams

This Halfling ninja has had to stay in the hobbit hole apart from leaving to go to work or run necessary errands lately. Why? I fried like an egg at the pool the other day. I may have not mentioned this before. I am the second of five children. All my siblings have a different skin tone from me. When they get out in the sun they get dark. It comes from my mother's genetics. She's Hawaiian. I took after my dad. He's Irish and photosensitive. Dad raised me to be cautious and take care of myself in the sun. I know the best sunblock brand. I naturally reapply. I don't tend to swim on cloudless days or between 10am and 2pm. I even stand in the shade a lot when I'm outside for extended amounts of time.

So what happened?

I had one of those feeling young and invincible moments.

I had been going to the pool all week and had been fine. My roommate's sister was visiting and we have to be with our guests at the pool or they'll be asked to leave because they aren't residents. She loves to swim so I had agreed to go with her over and over. The day was cloudy and it looked like it might rain or even storm. We only got maybe 3 whole minutes of direct, unfiltered sunlight. However, my arms started to get red blotches and they spread quickly. Once I start to burn I burn fast! We had to get the heck out of dodge.

The damage? I lightly burned my face and legs, I had angry blotchy pink spots all over my arms, and I was bright pink all around my collar. We broke out the After Sun Aloe Vera. I even started storing it in the fridge so it would be cold. I was angry with myself for not picking up a section of my grandma's aloe plant when I visited several weeks ago. I decided to wait and I can't remember my reasons anymore.

I'm not likely to get one of the "invincible" feelings about sun exposure again any time soon. I've had to wear sunblock at work (the strong, spray on kind that makes you look stiff and shiny, bleh) and I've had to dodge the sunlight between 10am and 2pm. An already established burn doesn't need any encouragement to get worse. I've been walking faster in the sunlight and slowing down in the shade. I've even been holding my arms in shady spots in the car while driving. It's been interesting. I feel like a ninja trying to hide from the sun. Needless to say I've learned my lesson.

Ninja Lesson: Don't overestimate your abilities or toughness.

That's it for this post! Thanks for reading. If you have any feedback for me just leave a comment or send a message to thehalflingninja@gmail.com

You're never too small to make a difference in the world.

-The Halfling Ninja