Collegiate Times

I always find it amusing when the orange glow appears in mid-February. You know what I'm talking about - girls who suddenly become tan between the beginning of second semester and right before spring break. It's pretty mysterious, considering Blacksburg doesn't see the sun during that time and laying out in 15 degree weather isn't the wisest of decisions. All jokes aside, it's obvious that sunlight is the last thing these girls are exposed to. They, like many young women, have been to tanning salons.

Maybe I find this phenomenon funny because I was once one of those girls. I began tanning before my junior prom in high school, following the lead of other girls and hoping not to fluoresce at the dance. After prom passed, I continued tanning and eventually got a job at the salon. It was a pretty easy gig in the summer, considering the majority of sane people don't pay for sunlight when they can get it outdoors for free.

But not me. I took advantage of the free employee tanning from the start. I wasn't forced to tan, but I was "encouraged to advertise the services provided" and could do so whenever I wanted. So I did. I tanned three times a week, taking my naturally pale skin to a maple hue in hardly any time at all. I loved the way I looked, and I figured that any harm I was doing to my body wouldn't appear until I was much older. Scary moles and age spots might befall me at age 60, but at that point I wouldn't be concerned with how I looked. (It's amazing what we can convince ourselves of.)

Then in early August I noticed a small black dot right between my breasts. I assumed it wasn't anything to worry about, and I kept tanning into the school year. But in November I began to get concerned about this mysterious black dot. Not only was it still there, it was getting bigger.

I had put in my two weeks notice at the salon to focus on college applications, so I decided it was a good time to get this dot looked at by a dermatologist. It was less than half the size of a pencil eraser and flat against my skin. But it was black. And it wasn't going away.

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