Lesson's Learned from a Sunburn

The prompt I chose for today's writing assignment is
1.) It was a bad burn. Tell about the worst sunburn you ever received. How did that happen!?!

When I read this 3 sunburns I have had immediately came to mind. I'm sure I've had more but a specific 3 sunburns stand out in my mind. The most recent one stands out because it was, well, recent. I forgot to put sunblock on while I spent the day at a water park. I also remember when I was 7 years old and we were in Hawaii. I must not have put the sunscreen on well because my day spent on the boogie board was evident on my back side. I remember it was hard sit for a while. This made me think of another sunburn I got which made it hard to sit. And this is the sunburn I'm choosing to write about today.

I will begin by saying I was a pretty good teenager. I'd like to think that I was a teenager most parents dream of having. I wasn't one who "hated" my parents. Sure there were moments I hated their rules but now that I'm a mom I'm very grateful. I'm pretty sure I would not be labeled a rebellious teen. However, I did have one or two moments of rebellion. One such moment left me with a pretty good sunburn.

Quick note to My mom and Dad who as they are reading this are discovering I did have a few secrets in my teenage years. Be grateful I didn't rebel in more ways and breath a sigh of relief that, in my opinion, I turned out great.

The details leading up the sunburn slip my mind as I can only remember the actual sunburn. So here is what I speculate the situation was. My parents were out of town...maybe it was the time they went to New Zealand and Australia with out me...and I was staying at my best friends house. It was take your child to work day and since my mom was a stay at home mom we decided to go to her place of work for the day. We put on our bathing suits and decided to work on our tan. Baby oil seemed like a great way to darken the skin. Instead of darkening my fair white skin it fried it in the sun. I was red and it hurt bad. Anything that touched it made my skin tingle with pain.

The day after was worse. I had to put clothes on to go to school but clothes just rubbed the skin and made it hurt even worse. I was a very modestly dressed teenager. I always wore shirts with sleeves and my skirts and shorts were never more than 2 inches above the knee. I don't even think I owned a tank top. My friend wasn't as conservative as me and she had this adorable sun dress hanging in her closet that I thought would be perfect to wear with my sunburn. It was sleeveless so my poor burnt shoulders would be able to breath. The dress was also a bit shorter then what I was used to wearing. It hung loosely all over so I didn't have to worry about the clothes bringing me any more pain. I borrowed the dress and off to school I went.

What I didn't plan on was how high the dress would rise when I sat down in the plastic school chairs. Did I mention the back of my thighs were burnt? When I would sit down in a chair the skirt would raise leaving the back of my thighs bare and touching the plastic chair. I discovered real quick that my skin would stick to the chair and every time I moved or got up it felt like my skin was tearing off. I went through my day sticking to chairs and grimacing in pain. Oh, and a back pack on bare burnt shoulders....that was pleasant too.

I learned a lot of lessons from this experience. 1. as with cooking, oil heats up real fast and can lead to a burn. 2. Had I worn a longer flowing skirt my legs could have been free of tight clothing and they would not have stuck to the chair. 3. Had I worn sleeves my back pack wouldn't have rubbed the skin on my shoulders. There is always a place for modesty even when sunburned.