A chameleon of the seasons, skin white as snow all winter, freckled with sun kisses all summer. Color I buy in a bottle hidden in the form of lotion has helped avoid the need to torture myself with monotonous hours lying in the sun in attempts to connect the ever accumulating dots. Mexican linage should have afforded me at least the ability to bronze up nicely in the sun. No...I was denied the genetics for this skin and instead covered in translucent white with the ability to "pop" color uncontrollably providing my children hours of entertainment watching for the next "spot". Ever undecided, in an unequal balance of white to white dotted, my skin changes. One side covered in dots, and the other not, thanks to my need to drive, or maybe a sign of an indecisive personality. Either way, I gave up the battle of the dots. My mother has spent thousands on "dot" erasing formulas and she still has dots (and she is the Mexican), I am lucky not to have her dots and refuse to sunbath with her in case they can jump. My mother, even with her dots, has the ability to "brown up" like the Mexican she is. An ability she kept to herself selfishly refusing to pass it on to her children. Instead cursing us with the white to red covering of my fathers family. I am told by my siblings that if I let myself "fry" a few times, eventually the skin will begin "browning" instead of "reddening". So I exchange this color for a "cooked lobster" red at least once a year. Providing myself with the pain and peeling just to return to the white base underneath with in a day or two. A painful and possibly deadly process I am now exchanging for a massage in my home, with coconut smelling lotion, leaving me slightly bronzed, painlessly over a period of time. The best part? No sun...NO DOTS!! Sometimes I can not decide if I am vying for the "social" correct color of skin, or hiding the identity of my nationality through color changes. Either way, I am entirely unsatisfied with my skin color. To me my skin color, and yours, run deeper than the shade. I wonder why a race of "White Men" spend millions of dollars annually in attempts to obtain a "skin color" many feel is inferior to our own. Am I ashamed of my white skin? Sometimes yes, when I read of the battles between white man and the Indians. When I read of the hatred for blacks then watch the "white" youth of today assume the piercings and tattoos noted in the black societies and their religious beliefs. Maybe I do buy self tanning lotion to hide my nationality, maybe I color in vain, what ever the reason I will succeed in my life long battle of the dots!
The above is a sample of writing I am entering into various contest...this one had a topic..."How do you feel about your skin color?" A few short minutes of my time and I have finally won something even better than a dumb ol' trophy!!! MONEY!!! hehehehe muhahahaha I like money.
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