YOU'RE A BROWN-SKINNED GIRL AND THAT'S OKAY

Another sunsoaked season fades away, says Dashboard Confessional and your skin is as the color of cafe au lait. You call it sunkist, tan, the loveliest shade of bronze but your neighbors just prefer to call you negra instead. That they can't see you in the dark. But so what? Take it all in stride and laugh with them. You're a brown-skinned girl and that's okay.

It's more than okay. It's summer's indelible mark on your skin. You can't get closer to awesome than that. It's your testimony to the world that you had the time of your life under the sun, and when life's gears go back in its old places and the rainy season comes, the colour of your skin will remind you that you once had a cool breeze on your cheek, sand in your hair and adventure in your eyes. Think of it as a reminder of the summer you turned pretty. Or the summer you came alive. Either way, it will be something you can't ever forget.

Don't mind the teasing, they're all for fun. It's always been in our culture to laud people with pearly white complexion, and try as you might, it's quite hard to get that idea out of people's heads. Don't mind it. But I hope, this last summer, you didn't hide under a shade or miss out on the fun because your gluta treatment was expensive. Love your own skin, love the way that God made you. People in other countries wait for months on end, or travel miles and miles just to enjoy the brand of sunshine that we most often take for granted. I hope you didn't make that mistake of hiding. Ihope you soaked up the sun all the way to your soul.