Pros and Cons

I'm going to take a moment out of your day to write about something you probably don't care much about at all.

I left all my makeup in Winona when we visited for the family reunion. I wasn't too worried and I thought I'd ask my aunt Holly to send it all to me here in Duluth. Since then, I have decided being without makeup isn't the worst thing in the world, and that I will just meet back up with it when I return to it at the end of this month for school. While I pass the time until our reunion, I have begun a pros and cons list regarding Life Without Make Up

LIFE WITHOUT MAKE UP
A pros and cons list

Believe it, people. These are photos of the same human being, taken less than a week apart. 

No meth was involved.

PROS:

• I get ready half an hour more quickly. Not that applying makeup took/takes me half an hour, but somehow eliminating that part of my morning speeds up the rest of my tasks.
• I make much less noise in the morning, I have to imagine this is better for the sleeping Dan that is often present.
• When my eye itches, I can rub it.
• When I don't put it on, I don't have to take it off before bed
• I heard there are teeny bugs and bacteria that are attracted to mascara and live in mascara'd eyelashes. I don't have those this week.
• My skin is taking a vacation from foundation and that's probably beneficial. It hasn't had 2 weeks off like this in years, I think.
• We are outside a LOT at work. I wear sunglasses outside, and since the biggest difference in my appearance is due to the lack of eye makeup, when I'm outside I feel normal.
• My students say, "You look better this way, Miss Abby. I don't even remember what you looked like before." And also, "You should never wear make up again." I'm not joking. They actually said that. It was awesome.

CONS:

• My students also say, "You look different. It's weird." and "I barely even recognize you today, Miss Abby!" and "Will you ever get your make up back?" I'm not joking about that, either. They actually said that.
• Despite the break from foundation, my skin still erupted in blemishes, which I couldn't even attempt to hide even a little.
• I have super red cheeks that -when not camouflaged in a little makeup- cause people to ask me if I'm feeling well because I look flushed and possibly feverish.
• I feel like I look weird in nice clothes without a made up face, so I've kinda been dressing down. Over all, I feel pretty dumpy.
• I read somewhere that 67% of women received better treatment when wearing makeup. What's up with that.

I think it's a nice list. If I were using the jelly-beans-on-a-balancey-scale method to determine the preferable side, it's obvious the pros of A Life Without Makeup outweigh the cons, especially when I feel like "When my eye itches, I can rub it" is worth like 7 jelly beans. Unfortunately, I think that my feeling a little dumpy is worth approximately 50 jelly beans when I want to look nice but don't feel it. Considering that fact, in the end I rule on the side of a life WITH make up, and I do look forward to picking it up again when I'm back in Winona.

I do think I am having a valuable experience, though. I know this is silly, but hear me out. I definitely started wearing makeup too early in life and have felt it a necessity in my life since. (Don't scoff at how shallow that sounds. Blame society, or something.) The past two weeks I've seen that it's possible to feel just as good about myself without it. The kids still respect me. My coworkers still value me. My boyfriend still thinks I'm pretty. Awesome.

Now that we've talked about this, you can go back to whatever you were doing earlier.