Picture this.
You’ve graduated high school a couple months before, filled with confidence from your achievements academically and reminiscing all the fun you had with your schoolmates. Although you’re experiencing nerves, naturally, you’re looking forward to taking that next step in your journey – university!
Now, comes the first day of university in the peak of summer (in Australia, mind you) and as you rush to get yourself ready and pack your bags, you find yourself SWEATING. A LOT.
You change your clothes to something a bit lighter; you turn off the oscillation of the pedestal fan and point it towards you on maximum speed; you wipe your forehead with a towel; you make yourself a cup of water with ice; you close your eyes and try and slow down your breathing… but you’re STILL SWEATING. And your bus is arriving in under 5 minutes.
After your attempted session to calm yourself down, you force yourself to eventually leave the comfort of your home, to catch said bus, praying that you can hopefully grab a seat under an aircon vent which will cool you down enough before you arrive at your stop.
Of course, knowing your luck, the bus arrives and there is not just a lack of seats available, the middle aisle is almost at capacity with standing passengers. You accept that this is going to turn out to be one of those bus rides you truly, deeply wish you could avoid.
Even though you eventually find a place to stand in the bus, with your arm outstretched to hold onto a pole or handle to keep yourself balanced during the long bus ride, you can already feel it. The SWEAT dripping down your forehead, back and armpits. All of it already making its mark on the new shirt you already switched into from the previous. You do your best to focus on the music playing through your earphones and pacing your breathing, but you feel the weight of everyone’s eyes watching you. Judging you. You feel disgusted with yourself. You can’t wait to get off this bus so you can find the nearest bathroom to clean yourself up.
When your dream comes true and the bus finally arrives at your stop, you race out the exit, find the nearest public restroom, open up the nearest available stall, put down the full toilet lid and just sit. Sit for a couple minutes fanning yourself with whatever piece of paper or book you packed in your heavy bag and willing your face and body to cool down and STOP SWEATING.
After a moment, you may have cooled down slightly, but you know too well that you have to walk about a kilometre from this stall to the lecture hall of your university campus (did I already say this was in the Australian summer heat?).
So, off you start walking, luckily (and unluckily) your backpack hiding (and causing) your sweat on the back of your t-shirt from onlookers. You try to take in any cooling breeze provided this morning or any wind created by commuting cars speeding by. Buses and trucks are preferred!
When you finally arrive on campus and find the lecture room you’re expected to be in, you find the back-most, side-most seat you can find, away from anyone else, because you look like a mess and its the first lecture of the day. But you’re so late from this morning’s antics, that the only seats available are exactly the ones you don’t want right now – smack-bang in the middle! You contemplate whether you should just leave the room entirely and wait outside for the next class instead. You can’t sit there. Not looking like this!
Alas, you will yourself to commit and you take your seat. However, as the lecture goes on, you can’t actually understand a thing the professor is saying as all you’re thinking about is how you look right now and what all your fellow classmates are thinking about you. “Look how sweaty that guy is” “Ew he’s gross” “What a weirdo” “Go get another shirt, dude” “What’s wrong with him?”
You just want to go home.
But you remind yourself that you might as well get used to these sad feelings that will occur daily now because you know you have to do this routine every day for the foreseeable Australian summer.
Surely, I’m not the only one in the world who experiences this SWEAT problem? Surely, there is something I can do?
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The above was the beginning of My SWEAT Story.
Over the years, I have learned many tips & tricks (tangible and intangible) that have allowed me to better understand my SWEAT, rather than be ashamed of it. And I’m here to share this all with you.
My fellow sweaters, I want you to know you are NOT alone. 5% of the world’s population experience the SWEAT you and I experience too!
I’m glad you’ve find my blog and hope you can learn a thing or two to embrace this intriguing part of your body and life.