A Remnant of Youth

Time takes its toll on our bodies. 

The hair thins out.  Vision changes.  No more driving at night.  And what was that you said?  Eating marshmallows leads to expensive crowns.  The joints freeze up. Getting out of a chair, leads to visions of Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt.  Our skin sags into our boots though there is not much room due to the orthotics.
 
No matter how many times I look, I am startled by the image in the mirror.  How did this happen?
 
Just when I think I have reached peaceful self-acceptance, I spot it—a last vestige of my youth!  There in the mirror and on my face is a ginormous, shiny, swollen, pulsating plug of sebum.
 
I have acne!
 
I scour the drugstore aisles examining and testing acne treatment products.  I thought I was done with this when my teen years were over, but then I re-opened the investigation when my children entered adolescence.  Here I go again. 
 
My doctor tells me adult acne is a result of declining estrogen that allows testosterone to show itself.
Really?!  Couldn’t I have large muscles or be the powerful dictator of a small country instead?
 
No matter our age, it seems hormones are determined to have the last word.  Makes you feel like a kid again. Just not the kid I had in mind.
 

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