Comfortable in My Skin
- Megan Lloyd
- Sep 15, 2022
- 4 min read
“How Travel Shaped My Journey With Vitiligo”
We all have insecurities, and it takes a huge amount of courage to give ourselves the self-love and confidence that we all deserve. My biggest insecurity has always been my skin condition, Vitiligo. And although it is not a life-changing condition, as you can imagine, it can have a huge impact on someone’s confidence and self-esteem. This is the story of how travel shaped my journey with Vitiligo and helped me learn to love myself.
By Megan Lloyd
Vitiligo is a common skin condition in which white patches can develop on someone’s skin, due to a lack of melanin, creating the pigmentation in our skin. As you can imagine, while this was happening, my insecurities started growing alongside it.
You know the drill. When you are a teenager the last thing you want to do is stand out, especially in my case when all I wanted to do was hide the patches on my skin, particularly on my hands where it has always been most visible. I began developing the habit of trying to make them as least noticeable as possible, covering them up with camouflage creams and wearing long-sleeved clothing, which rarely worked. Sometimes I found it very hard, and as I didn’t know anyone with the same condition, it often led me to feel isolated.
The incredible thing is that once I started to explore, meet new people, and see the world, I noticed that things started to change within myself. I started experiencing all these incredible things and met so many people from all walks of life. And over time, I finally started to realize that having vitiligo doesn’t make me different, and that I should have confidence and love towards myself and my skin. This was the point of departure of my journey.
Since my travel bug began just a few years ago, I have been lucky enough to travel around many parts of Europe. From navigating the scenic trains in Switzerland, exploring the cobbled streets and Christmas markets in Poland, Island hopping around Croatia and hunting for the magical Northern lights in Iceland, to sipping on flavorsome wine in Italy whilst watching the sunset.
These have all been incredible moments that I will cherish forever, but in hindsight, these amazing memories are just half of what I have taken away with me and merely a glimpse of how my confidence and love towards myself has grown. What matters most is everything else that comes with traveling.
When we travel, there is always more to the picture than simply visiting nice places in the world. When we travel, we often have no choice but to step out of our comfort zones, and more often than not we are faced with situations that encourage us to do just that. I have been in so many of these situations, from solving problems that arise or asking strangers for directions, to simply pushing myself to make a conversation with the person sitting next to me. And I can now say it’s one of the things that has helped me grow the most.
Pushing ourselves helps give us that confidence boost we need, because nine times out of ten the experience will be positive, and you will realize that you can do it, you just need to believe in yourself. I have also started to notice how much more open-minded and empathetic I have become. Travel broadens our minds and opens our eyes to many different perspectives. From the languages we speak to the foods we eat, and being open-minded will always spark self-growth. This has helped my confidence grow in ways I couldn’t imagine before.
"Pushing ourselves helps give us that confidence boost we need, because nine times out of ten the experience will be positive, and you will realize that you can do it, you just need to believe in yourself."
I recently began setting the challenge that every time I went somewhere new I would encourage myself to meet and socialize with others, even if it was just a simple hello to someone in a café and since doing so, I have been able to meet so many interesting people, from many incredible cultures and backgrounds. And although there’s a chance I may never see them again, they all have taught me one important message: that every single one of us is different, unique, and important, and we should embrace it.
Admittedly, I still have a long way to go. And although I sometimes do let my insecurities still creep back in every now and then, I finally feel like I am finding the confidence and self-love to embrace my vitiligo. I now understand that my skin condition is not something that I should have ever been ashamed of, not then and certainly not now. And to say that travel helped me gain this new profound confidence and view may sound incredible or maybe even crazy, it’s definitely something that can show us how much we can learn from others and the world around us.
From Megan
I hope you have enjoyed reading my story, and I hope that it may have inspired you to find the confidence you deserve to have. Written and created by Megan Lloyd, owner of A Brunettes Passport Travel Blog and social media pages. Find me on Instagram at @abrunettespassport or on my website: https://abrunettespassport.com/
