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Saundra Mitchell is the author of the 2009 release Shadowed Summer. Her and her friend Wendi were nice enough to sit down and come up with a list of sixteen things they wished they knew when they were sixteen. Enjoy!
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Happy birthday, Hope! To celebrate your 16th, I sat down with my best friend Wendi, and we came up with a list of 16 things we wish we'd known when we were 16. Pretty much all of life is learning about things the hard way, and these are some of ours.
1. I wish I'd known that everyone feels awkward and alien in their own skin at sixteen.
2. I wish I'd known that a lot of classmates were going to peak at eighteen and go all downhill from there.
3. I wish I'd known that I'd look back at my pictures from high school and realized I wasn't ugly after all.
4. I wish I'd learned to study, because it's hard to learn that in college when you're suddenly paying for your own education.
5. I wish I'd known to enjoy more OMGEVERYKINDOFFOOD while I still had a metabolism.
6. I wish I'd known that I'd be sorry I hadn't gone to prom, even if just to sit in the corner and watch the beautiful people.
7. I wish I'd known that I didn't know anywhere near as much about the world as I thought I did.
8. I wish I'd known how expensive cars actually are to keep.
9. I wish I would have known that my friends were not the ones who wanted to "fix" me.
10. I wish I'd known how hard it would be to quit smoking.
11. I wish I'd known that bullies and monsters would forget what they'd done, and friend you on Facebook twenty years later. (On the upside, this means you get to block them!)
12. I wish I'd known how little all the stuff that bothered me at sixteen would ever cross my mind at twenty six, and how ancient it would seem at thirty six.
13. I wish I'd known to ask my grandparents how they fell in love.
14. I wish I'd known that sometimes, the teachers that are the hardest on you are just hard because they can be- not because you're failing to live up to some magical potential.
15. Although I do wish I'd known that wasn't actually living up to my potential.
16. I wish I'd known that Duran Duran would get back together. (Wendi dared me to include that.)
And this isn't on the list, because it's too big. But I wish I had known at sixteen that I could have at thirty five a best friend to giggle with, to swoon over movie stars with, to cry with, to fight with, and to play with- to make stupid faces with, and play with make up with, to dare to do deeply dumb things with, just because it's funny- because we all have to grow older, but we never have to grow up. Happy Sweet 16!
-Saundra & Wendi
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Thanks so much, Saundra and Wendi!
hope.
5 comments:
This is a really great list. I love it.
I wish I'd known at sixteen that (for me) weighing 130lbs was healthy, fit, and sexy.
So far this is my favorite guest post you've had! 1,2,3,4,6,8, and 10 are all the ones I can completely relate to now!
Amber
#12, seriously! Just a couple of months ago I found some old letters I exchanged with a fmaily member about this agonizing decision I thought I had to face... meanwhile, 10 years later, I had honestly forgotten all about it!
And apparently at one time I was terrified of earthquakes--I don't remember that at all!
This is such a great list, it is hard to see a lot of these things when you are 16, but once you get older, these things are so true!
It is hard to believe that you are almost 16 years old, it seems like yesterday that you were born. I love you so much and I am so proud of you and all that you have accomplished. I know that you will go far, remember your dreams and don't every stop reaching for them!
I love you-
Mom
Brilliant guest post!
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