Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Letter To My Thirteen Year Old Self

I have been tagged here: http://innerminx.blogspot.com/

So I have decided to write a letter to my Thirteen Year Old Self. How theraputic this is !!!



Dear Me,

You have to remember something very important the rest of your life. You are not alone and you don’t have to solve everything yourself.

That said, he was the first love. Yes it was romantic with all of that hair and fringe. Yes he smelled of Teaberry gum and you seemed to be able to contact him with your brain. It will end in tears and a lot of lost sleep. You will get over it - eventually.

Don’t listen to those suffragists that suggest to you that you need to have a career as a woman of the 70’s. They were following the criteria for the decade. You won’t be another Barbara Walters – no matter how hard you study. You won’t even be a Bo Derek. In fact, your only designation in life will be intelligence enough to raise two sons and continue to try to grow as a human.

Your kids will give you fits. You will literally drag one back from the brink of insanity. You will watch the youngest grow into a mature and confidant, reliable young man.

You will cry like you have never cried over Teaberry , fringe, and hair. You will dig and claw and pray and convince yourself you are not worthy all over again.

But you are worthy. You will develop a strength that most will not have tested.

Remember this, Dear Me, as you climb the crab apple tree in the back yard and devour every book in sight, your life will be resplendent with things you have to pick and choose. You are so young.

You are so young. You must remember, you are not alone – you don’t have to solve everything yourself.

….and your siblings will be fine without the mothering you give.
….and your Mother will do it just fine.

...and your children will survive after you.

7 comments:

Dominic said...

You forgot to tell your 13 year old self to take better care of the family horse and buggy, because when you're 14 it will be traded in for a brand new Model T. ; )

Roberta said...

No. That was the year my pet dinosaur jumped the back yard fence and ran away.

Unknown said...

Nice one, Roberta. Good stuff.

Pearl said...

what an interesting idea. I'd like to think this out myself.

Pearl said...

Love how kind you were to yourself. It's like a exercise in resilience isn't it?

Roberta said...

Thank you Minx.

Welcome Pearl. I hope you will come back and visit again!

Dominic said...

Has your thirteen year old self written back yet? Just wondering.