Today, I turn 24 years old. Yay! I guess the grown-up feeling has finally set in this year with me confidently managing my finances, taking executive decisions of choosing my own haircut or nail colour, having a consistent workout and skincare routine. On the other hand, I am also consistently and consciously practicing a bad sleep schedule, long screen time, ignoring the book siting on my nightstand and cheating on eating healthy. All in all, I am in a good place and I like my ‘twenty-four year old self’. So I wondered about what I would wish for today when I blow the candles on my cake. Somehow out of all the money, happiness and blessings I could ask for, the only thing I truly want is good skin.
Back tracking to a handful years ago, I was one of the lucky ones who soared through the teenage years without any acne or breakouts. So when my skin started acting out as soon as I hit 20, I felt like a headless chicken with no clue about what to do. I have consistently practiced three things since then- learning about how to take care of my skin, following an AM to PM skincare routine and reminding myself that I am much more than the acne on my face. I have experienced it all, from unsolicited opinions of aunties to paying thousands at a dermatologist’s clinic, eventually convincing myself that ‘one can not have it all’.
Maybe, good skin is not something I am meant to have in my blooming twenties. I am meant to have people who grow with me everyday, who learn to normalise being around someone with acne and breakouts without having an opinion about it. I am meant to have a loving partner who helps me appreciate myself, to have the job that makes me happy even on a Monday, to have a pet cat named Mayo who wants to play at 2 am everyday, to have a minimalist life of trying to be sustainable, to have a thousand moments of imperfection with my family. I am meant to be the person who likes her iced coffees without ice.
And guess what? I am all these things even when I am not. So, cheers to being 24 with the words to write this down and appreciate the years that have past while looking forward to the many more to come.
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