I am a huge advocate for wearing makeup to enhance one's own already beautiful features, and/or to appreciate the art, skills, and patience behind its application rather than simply wearing it for the benefit of others. However, when I was introduced to the world of makeup in middle school and the connotations behind wearing it, I will admit that there was and has since been a small part of me that feels the need to look "presentable" in public.

I don't remember finding a lot of issues with my own face while growing up (I was more concerned about something else). My face was my face, yet once I started wearing some concealer and mascara, it became a part of my daily routine instead of something optional I could choose to wear that day. As I continued to grow up, I delved deeper into cosmetics and the amount of time it took to apply makeup steadily increased to eat up more of my morning.

Again, taking time out of one's day to put on makeup is not a waste of time if they enjoy it. The only problem with my situation was my reliance on it. It came to the point where I would be running late for school because my winged liner had to be just right, or I would wake up late and my first thought would be slapping on as much makeup as I could rather than eating a very necessary breakfast before running out the door because God forbid anyone should bear witness to my naked face. As I approached the end of high school, I had chilled out some, but still felt uncomfortable without my security eyeliner.

That's when college life rolled into the picture. I had scoffed at my sister's warnings against 8:00 a.m. classes; after all, my average high school day started at 7:30, so how could starting a half hour later possibly be worse?

Spoiler alert: it was much worse. For me personally, college takes a lot more energy out of me than high school ever did. My earliest classes throughout the year thankfully started at 9:00 a.m. instead, but in the mornings, I could really only manage waking up an hour before needing to leave my dorm room which left just enough time for washing my face, brushing my teeth, doing something with my hair, and putting on what I now call my everyday look (which is the same as it was in high school, but sans eyeliner). As it turns out, I was now more concerned with arriving on time for classes I'm paying good money for and furthering my higher education.

Oddly enough, this minor change in my routine did wonders for the negative portion of my relationship with makeup. I got used to seeing myself with a different look and inadvertently learned how to feel beautiful in a new way. Now, when I do feel like doing something extra with my makeup look or I am dressing up for a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" performance, I don't feel pressured to conform with societal standards of beauty, but I can just have fun applying my makeup while dancing around to music and snapping a few selfies (the way I see it, I had to come a long way before I could truly feel comfortable in my own skin, so I will take as many selfies with as many Snapchat filters as I please).

This isn't to say that I don't have bad days; sometimes I need to give myself a quick pep talk in the mirror before forcing myself out the door. Makeup is a wonderful thing for one's personal aesthetic, self-expression, and appreciation for creativity if they enjoy wearing it, but it's so incredibly important to remember that you are gorgeous with or without it and to work on severing a negative reliance on it. As the saying goes (kind of), with great makeup looks comes great responsibility.