I don’t have grey hairs yet.
And I’m unlikely to get them any time soon as my own mother didn’t see any greys until her early 60s.
I have a round face that still has a healthy padding of fat, meaning I still get carded for potentially being under 30, though I’m a year away from 40.
Women my age around me are freaking out, though.
Make-up to hide the true lines of their face, regular hair dye jobs (I dye mine too, though with henna and because I dislike my natural colour and love the ever-shifting colour henna gives me, not for fear of going grey), facials to massage those tired old muscles into a more youthful visage and creams for every hour of the day.
I gave up wearing make up when I moved from retail to logistics.
Nobody was going to care what I looked like when I hauled my ass into work at 5 am to work in a semi-dark retail space. Being clean and presentable was enough not to mention that getting up any earlier than I already had to was out of the question.
Despite having gotten a make-up artist’s certification in my youth, it showed me more how pointless a lot of the beauty industry is, rather than get me more engaged in it.
Most women whose faces I painted, or taught how to use products to essentially make themselves look younger, didn’t need most of what I put on them.
Using more SPF, a good moisturising routine, and a large dose of kindness would have made them much more beautiful than any product I could have ever sold them.
Wrinkles are nothing to be afraid of.
They’re the map of the life you’ve lived.
Like rings in a tree, they’re the evidence of time passing, of experience gained.
I don’t want to spend my time worrying about how I look.
And people need to stop commenting on how I look, because I don’t really care.
There are so many more things in life to do and experience than worrying about if I look thin enough or “put together” enough doing it.
Health. Love. Compassion. Joy. Once you start listing the things that matter more than looking young or skinny, there’s just no end.
Life is made to be lived.
When it’s my time to get wrinkles and grey hair, I’ll be happy to wear them with pride, because I know I’ll have earned them.
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“When Sasha Barrett gets bitten by a snake on a mission, her squad captain’s quick actions not only save her life, but also make her realise something she may have known all along…“
