My summer of 2020 was spent living at a condo on Siesta Key Beach. Being in such close proximity to the shore, I spent just about everyday sunbathing by the water. It reminded him of being a child and going out on summer excursions to the beach with family. This brought up troubling emotions of the past in response to getting a suntan. For many people, tanning is desirable, but as a child, my younger self was concerned about becoming what I would consider “too tan.”
As these emotions resurfaced the first questions that came to mind was, “What does being ‘too tan’ even mean?” and “Why would I, a child, feel that there is such a thing as being too tan? And why was I worried about it?” So, I dove deeper into those emotions. The more I learned, the more I realized that this issue was not a personal one, but a cultural one within my community.