After watching this beautiful video about a girl who suffers from a skin condition called Vitiligo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__3Hm14whUY&feature=share), it inspired me to write this…
I don’t really speak/write about this because it’s so evident in my appearance it doesn’t require me to do so, but I thought I’d write about it anyways.
I have eczema!!!! (Surprise of the year right? Haha)
It’s basically a dry skin condition that affects 1 in 9 people in England at some point in their lives. I’ve had it since I was 3 years old, and the impact it has had on my life in terms of my health and self esteem has been immense…
To people who know me now, it would only be patches of dry skin on my hands but in fact this condition left me covered head to toe with eczema when I was growing up. At a young age I could see how my mother investing sooo much money, effort and prayers to find a cure…this ranged from old school African remedies, Chinese medicines, regular NHS methods and the strangest things I had to bathe with and drink lol.
I remember when I was younger and in primary school, some kids used to avoid me like a plague (maybe because they actually thought I had it lol)..all games that involved holding hands also included them using the sleeves of their school jumpers to cover their hands so that they wouldn’t have to touch my hands…(YES..CHILDREN CAN BE MEAN lol) looking back on it now its actually quite amusing because they acted like it was contagious, but in that moment in time I felt like a some kind of ugly two headed mutant. Even now I get the stares by children who really don’t know any better..and adults too!..they stare at my hands for a whole 5 minutes having no idea that I’m looking right at them..
I also used to think about the future A LOT! Questions like…what will happen when I get a boyfriend and he wants to hold my hand? Or..Will my children have it? and especially ..What will I do on my wedding day and he has to put the ring on my finger?…and PICTURES!! Lol
But of course I’ve grown quite a bit since then and found Christ along the way!, which definitely shifted my perspective on how I view my eczema. After a while I stopped thinking that the condition had control over me but rather I had the condition, which means I get to decide how much of an effect it has on my life. Everyone has their own perspective on how they view beauty, but I believe that true beauty is within because Christ lives in you..so despite your flaws, imperfections and complexes..YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! AND DON’T LET NOBODY TELL YOU OTHERWISE!
So whoever is in or going to come into my life is going to have to accept ALL OF ME, every single dry patch! Ha!
Love Blessing
xoxo
