Journey

I'm just a sunburned girl. Living in a cold cold world.

It's been well over a week and my skin is still pealing and itching. I put on sunscreen like crazy the whole trip. Except one morning. One mistake, we forgot a few spots and did we ever pay for it.

We got back in our room after a day in the Grand Caymans. I look at my back and it was soooo burnt. So of course, I freak out. "Micah! This was your job! Your one job! You are supposed to get my back. You're supposed to have my back. I can't reach it, I can't see it! How could you forget my back?" Mostly joking.

Two minutes later, he takes his shirt off... And it was way worse than mine. "Oh no... oops," I said. We had a good laugh. And I ate my words.

Burn baby burn

We had big plans of doing all sorts of different things on our trip. Trying new foods, drinks, gambling, maybe even a tattoo or piercing, sign us up. We're up for anything. We're not going to know anyone, we can do whatever we want, be whoever we want to be. I even bought a slightly floozy dress to wear.

And then, when we were face to face to with all these new cool things we wanted to do, we realized something. Ya know, I'm ok with the way I am. I don't like oysters. They look disgusting and I don't want to try one. Gambling is stupid. Why would I want to do that? And the worst part, I didn't get to wear my new dress. It's like a little party dress... and we're not really partiers. I suppose I could have put it on just to say I wore it. But there wasn't a good opportunity. I was already set on my formal dresses and a little party dress would look stupid at a casual dinner. Believe it or not, my dress lineup was FULL. And after being sick the first night, that meant I had to cut down a dress. Ugh.. the struggle.

See, way too low and short for MN but in the Carribean, maybe not. Believe me, mostly everyone there was wearing so much worse, no one would have looked twice. Disregard the creeper in the back. ; )

I might as well show you this one too since I didn't get to wear it. I can probably still wear this to a wedding or something this summer. And the two dresses were only like $12 a piece from Charlotte Russe, so it's not a huge loss. And for the record, I DID NOT buy them in the month of January, the month that I had sworn off buying clothes.

Part of me does wish we were like nightlife people, I mean, it looks so cool doesn't it? Sometimes it's easy for me to feel dumb for not having fun the way the "cool kids" do. But then Micah would say to me "Hey, are we having a good time?" "yes" "Are we doing what we want to do?" "yes" "Then we're ok!" And he's right. We went to The Greatest Showman at the IMAX theater and it was amazing. (and now my entire family is addicted to the soundtrack) And after several busy days of excursions, we watched Wonder and Murder on the Orient Express outside on the big screen one night. We could look up and see the moon and stars, hear the waves crashing into the ship, go and get another pizza or ice cream cone, while we laid on beach chairs with a blanket. It was wonderful. Not glamorous, but wonderful.

I need to remember that sometimes it's ok to just be who you are. That it's ok to curl up and watch a movie instead of getting all dressed up again and sitting in a bar, pretending to be an adult. I'm not saying I shouldn't challenge myself (did you SEE me jump off that cliff?!) every once in awhile. But to be content and confident in who you are no matter what other people are doing. That's a hard place for me to get to sometimes. I hope you can get there. And not feel like you have to like or agree with whatever mumbo jumbo I'm saying.

So how can you stand out and fit in? That is the challenge.