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This post is sponsored by Clinique and the new StoryChangers program. “We Are Story Changers. Watch and read stories from women like you who prove that when you change your story, you change your outlook.” For information about my posting policy, please see my Disclaimer.

I was looking through some old pictures the other day when I came across one of me and my best friend, Jen, on the day we graduated from high school (20 years ago!).

In the pic, we’re standing in my living room in our graduation caps and gowns, all excited and hopeful, and truth be told a little clueless, LOL!

Of course I had to snap a pic with my phone (I feel like I’m always doing this, taking pics of other pics). I texted it to Jen with a note, “Recognize these two youngins?”

She wrote back, “WOW. Just look at our faces. We were babies.”

And yeah, I guess we were. Although at the time, I remember thinking that I was all grown up because I was off to college in a few months.

Little did I realize then the challenges ahead, and when I look at the pic now, at my smooth, unlined skin and my squishy baby-faced cheeks, I see a young girl who has no idea of the hills she’ll have to climb, the obstacles she’ll eventually conquer, the missteps she’ll make, and make again, and again, the wonderful people she’ll meet along the way and the lessons she’ll learn.

And when I look in the mirror now, these many years later, I see proof of those lessons in my lines.

Sure, my pores are more visible, and my under-eye area isn’t as bright as it once was (ah…to be 18 again and able to get away with not wearing under-eye concealer!), but those smile lines around my eyes that show up when I’m happy, and those lines that show up around my mouth when I’m laughing, are reminders of the good times I’ve had along the way.

We all have our stories to tell and our paths to take. The decisions we make — both big and small — chart the course of our lives, and the beauty of it is, we can change that course. It’s kind of powerful, really, if you think about it. I don’t know where I’d be now (maybe still working at a job I didn’t like) if I hadn’t listened to that nagging voice in my head seven years ago that kept bugging me to start a blog. I’m grateful I listened to it.

This idea that we have the power to change our own story is the backbone of Clinique’s new StoryChangers program, a new multimedia platform on Clinique.com with videos, stories and vlogs from bloggers (including yours truly!) that celebrate the different ways women change their own stories, while introducing Clinique’s line of Acne solution products.

Hopefully one of their stories inspires you (and maybe your skin, too!), one decision at a time.

Every day of my life, my skin is changing, and so am I. As are you. We can’t stop things from changing, but we can alter course along the way. 🙂

If you have any questions at all about Clinique Acne solutions and you want answers straight from the source, they have a live chat available on their website where you can talk to a Clinique consultant about a regimen that’s right for your needs.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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