Watching my face in the mirror, suddenly I noticed that there were some gooseberry like skin on my face. I washed my face and used soap to cleanse. It caused some pain, but I was in a hurry to get to college. The next day, the same thing remained. I forgot about until the day, when somebody commented on my face looking like jelly beans sticking to my face. Off I went to the locker room, and looked at my face. Why, there were pimples and freckles on my face. That put a downer on my activity for the day.

I tried to stay out of other people’s way, but did not succeed. Of course, there were other persons who were having the same problem. They kept to themselves, while I was different because I like people, and I like talking about all manner of things. And when one of my friends, a boy of course, who had not yet become a boyfriend, mentioned those facial abnormalities, I knew my patience was at end.

When my mother came home in the evening I asked her what was going on, and demanded to be taken to our physician. Why me? Why me? After listening to me, she gathered in her arms and held me till I had stopped trembling and of course crying. She told me, honey, you are a science student. You want to become medical professional or not. So why don’t you try to find yourself what’s going on before I take you to the physician, that is if you still want to? Why don’t you try to find out something about these pimples and freckles, etc. Right away, yes, I went on the internet and just typed in pimples, freckles, etc. My father, when he came home a few hours later too hugged me, and on his recommendation, I went to the US Government’s website on health.

Through it, I was taken to a number of sites which dealt with the problem, because it was causing a great deal of problems for the persons concerned, and for their near and dear relatives, what to speak of so-called friends? The main thing I learnt was that this was due an abnormal activity of hormones transiting from adolescence to teenager level. These abnormal functions of the hormones affected not everybody, but some people, the exact reasons of which were not known.

Then I looked up the help pages, what, why, where, how and when. I learnt a whole new way of dealing with it. First was that I had to accept and to cope with it. In most cases it would just go away over a period of time.

Then to prevent oily skin, a cause of the oil gland and skin relationship, I could try a few measures to guide me.

One was to take a hot, not very hot, but hot enough for your hand to put into without being scalded and using a soft soap which contained less abrasive detergents, and more of oil cleansers and moisturizers. This had to be done at least twice a day. I could wash my face with an alcohol free face wash which was available, and you had to see the pack label.

The other tips were to drink lots of water, instead of colas. That helps the body to keep the water level in the body high and through it the skin, which could help fight or neutralize to an extent the excessive my body was generating.

I was asked to go in for diets full of fresh leafy vegetables, no hamburgers, except once in a while, and opt for low fat or low calorie milk. In fact there’s a whole lot of food that helps you to reduce your oil content being churned out by those stupid hormones! I did not have to give my favorites. All I had to do was to maintain a balance over what I liked to have, and what I should have.

Exercise was encouraged. Not because of over-weight or something like that, but to improve blood supply to the various parts of the body, including most importantly, the capillaries of the skin. That exercise helps to cleanse the capillaries clogged with oil or oil just under the skin layer.

With those details in hand, and when I saw the vast community facing the same problem as I was, I regained my self-confidence. If my colleagues in my community wanted to have a pretty face, rather than an intelligent person, then they could go right away. I was not going to indulge in self-pity. I had it, and it will go someday. Otherwise my Mom and Pop would take me to the right person. So take heart and care.