Dear Teen Me
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| That's me on the left, my HS principal, my bestie since the 3rd grade, Kelli, and our yearbook adviser. |
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| Get your copy of Into the Fire here! |
I'll just slip it in whatever book she's reading. She'll find it.
We're talking about regrets, right?
Things we did as teens that we'd go back and tell ourselves to do differently?
Well, I've thought a lot about this.
Obviously, there was my poor husband, who I was pretty mean to. I could go back in time and go out with him my Freshman year. Then I wouldn't hear about how brutal I was for the next fifty years.
I suppose...but let's be honest...if I'd dated him then, he either would have screwed it up (I still contend he never respected me, and never would have, unless I forced him to) or we'd have hit it off smashingly and have been teen parents.
Procreation has not been a difficulty for us.
So, let's leave that alone.
There are my screw-ups. Should I warn young me to duck some of the really humiliating ones?
Maybe if you'd asked me while the embarrassment was fresh, I might have been eager for an edit. Looking back on it...I learned a lot from those mistakes. And they are some of my best party stories.
What about telling myself to study harder?
I mean, my grades were good. Could they have been better if I hadn't sold my textbooks for beer clothes money? Probably.
Thing is...I like to have fun. I could start working harder any time I want to. The problem is when the grasshopper throws a party, this ant is happy to put on a hat and go.
Wait, I could tell me about the friends...
I could tell her how blessed she is to have a lifetime of good friends. Friends who pulled her through everything. Friends who went to hell and back collecting escaped skeletons.
They're the best part of youth and the part you will miss the most.
Yeah, that's what I'll tell her...
Thanks to our hosts Lexa, L.G, and Tonja Drecker for this weekly good things check in!
The book is done. I just need to proof it. And maybe change the beginning the little...beginnings are important.
Now, there is the blurb, the cover, the marketing...
Oh heck, let's just be happy I made it to The End.
Detective Steven Quaid is ready for the new challenges as Anchorage’s top detective, but not until he marries the woman of his dreams on New Year’s Eve. Determined to give Sarah the wilderness honeymoon she desires, he turns his grandfather’s cabin into the perfect honeymoon retreat.
After the final details are complete, Steven treks into the mountains to hunt.
On his return to the cottage, instead of Sarah, he is greeted by several police officers and a bloody crime scene. Accusations fly, and Stephen flees into the wilderness, his heart racing and thoughts etching into his soul.
The wilderness is unforgiving, but Steven faces it head on: Caught between a massive grizzly and a black bear in a deadly tug of war, he is barely saved from death’s door by the fortuitous appearance of his uncle. Despite surviving multiple injuries, Steven continues his investigation as he recovers, but answers don’t come quick or easy.
Having enlisted the aid of his number one suspect, Steven faces a struggle that has become more than personal…This one just may cost him his heart.
http://www.linkytools.com/get_bloghop_code.aspx?id=267314&type=basic
The book is done. I just need to proof it. And maybe change the beginning the little...beginnings are important.
Now, there is the blurb, the cover, the marketing...
Oh heck, let's just be happy I made it to The End.
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| Available Now! |
After the final details are complete, Steven treks into the mountains to hunt.
On his return to the cottage, instead of Sarah, he is greeted by several police officers and a bloody crime scene. Accusations fly, and Stephen flees into the wilderness, his heart racing and thoughts etching into his soul.
The wilderness is unforgiving, but Steven faces it head on: Caught between a massive grizzly and a black bear in a deadly tug of war, he is barely saved from death’s door by the fortuitous appearance of his uncle. Despite surviving multiple injuries, Steven continues his investigation as he recovers, but answers don’t come quick or easy.
Having enlisted the aid of his number one suspect, Steven faces a struggle that has become more than personal…This one just may cost him his heart.
http://www.linkytools.com/get_bloghop_code.aspx?id=267314&type=basic
Smart not to change anything. I've always told my wife that if we'd met in high school, she never would've had anything to do with me. So, much better we met later.
ReplyDeleteFriends are the most important thing we'll ever have in our life.
The teen years are kind of awkward for everyone. We're kind of like wine...getting better with age.
DeleteLook at you up there! Hindsight is 20/20. I am envious of those of you who are with the same person most of your life. The older you get, the more valuable (and rare) you find it is to have someone in your life who has been there with you over the years.
ReplyDeleteI think that comes with small town living. I graduated with pretty much the same class of kids that I went to kindergarten with.
DeleteThere's no denying the 80s! LOL
ReplyDeleteVery cool. :)
The 80s were awesome. Even in the 80s, I knew it was going to be a memorable decade!
DeleteI wouldn't change a thing either. You change one thing and you can screw everything up.
ReplyDeleteThat's true! And you can't change anything anyhow, why bother obsessing over it.
DeleteNot changing anything is probably the wisest way to go. Who knows what a small change might totally mess up ;)
ReplyDeleteYou're so right! I'm happy where I'm at right now. I'll not risk it.
DeleteI'm so happy to hear you approach the letter from the viewpoint that without all the things that happened to you when you were younger, you wouldn't have the life you live now. I agree with you. Congrats on reaching "The End"! Celebrate that now and there'll be enough time for the next steps later. :)
ReplyDeleteLiving backward doesn't work anyhow, so why bother?
DeleteIsn't it sad that as soon as I finish that last line my brain starts to worry about what's next? I miss the days when I thought getting to the end meant everything was done and magic fairies would come and carry the manuscript away and finish it up.
Thanks, Elizabeth! So awesome to see Murder & Obsession out and about.
ReplyDeleteI love your letter. You're right, all those things make us who we are, and if we like who we are no regrets needed. Happy Friday!
And if we don't like who we are, we best start changing some things because we're the one soul we'll never be able to shake!
DeleteI got your book!! Thank you! I can't wait until you're in the area. I'll send you my number so you knwo how to hunt me down.
Those youthful friends... when I see mine when I return to Buffalo, it's as if we've never been apart. It doesn't matter that we'd probably never would have become friends as adults or anything else. We talk to each other like we did when we were teenagers. I don't regret anything as a teenager. Maybe I would have nudged myself about getting more involved in a few things. I don't regret the parties either. :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, that is part of the awesomeness of friends from youth. It's definitely an eclectic blend. I don't regret the parties either. As a matter of fact, we should have had more of them!
DeleteLoving the hair. I wouldn't have married my husband if I'd met him as a teen. His hairstyle - OMG!
ReplyDeleteTeen years are rough. There like sand paper for our personalities.
DeleteI got married as a teenager.....so I wouldn't change anything.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post Elizabeth.#
Yvonne.
How lucky you were to get it right early on!
Deletethis was such a great post! going through our mistakes makes us who we are - life shouldn't be perfect or we wouldn't appreciate anything, like your man appreciating you (and he should def stop whining! ha! he's the lucky one!) i wished things were different many times in my life (at the time) but things turn out so great, i'd be afraid to change the past and miss those wonderful moments, not worth it! Not to mention, my teen me wouldn't listen to my advice anyway! ha!
ReplyDeletehave a great week, friend!
You're so right. We do need the missteps to appreciate the good stuff.
DeleteHow great to have such a sweet teen life to look back at and enjoy again! And you've been with your guy for one long, lovely time. Cheers to that.
ReplyDeleteI did have a great youth. My class was full of the most awesome, wonderful people.
DeleteGreat post. I don't have that many CLOSE friends from back then... but like you have learned a lot from my mistakes. You are sooo cute! Love the teaser for Yolanda Renee's novel at the end of the post!
ReplyDeleteI think small towns foster good friendships. You have to learn to get along, you're kind of stuck with each other.
DeleteIf I could write a letter to my teen self (and send it back in time), I'd warn myself about so much...all the things that hurt me.
ReplyDeleteI have been very fortunate in that most of my hurts could be fixed with band aids and hugs. Not everyone is that lucky.
DeleteYay on reaching the end.
ReplyDeleteI'd have a lot to say to the teen me, but then again all those mistakes and awkwardness led to learning opportunities.
Exactly, I learned a lot of empathy for stupid people by being stupid half my life.
DeleteThe end is never the end, is it? But congrats on getting one step closer!
ReplyDeleteI'm 6 years older than my wife, so if I had met her in high school I would be what police call a sex offender.
It never is!! Thanks for stopping by, cradle robber. LOL
DeleteI like where I am and who I am today, and since taking a different path might not have gotten me to this same place, why mess with it? I'd leave it all as it was, both the bad and the good. However, I MIGHT tell the teen me to skip the blue eye shadow period I went through later on in life. (What WAS I thinking???)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on reaching "the end." The first chapter is always so HARD. We want the perfect first sentence, and the perfect first chapter, so we write it again... and again... and again... until it's hard to know when we're done. Good luck with it.
What were we all thinking?! I blame beauty magazines, they pushed that eggshell blue crap on us. I remember having an epiphany around 1984 that if we weren't careful, we'd replace the seventies as the worst fashion decade ever. I brought my hair down a few inches and went back to brown eye shadow.
DeleteYou've been such a great help with this story! I cannot thank you enough.
You and your BFF look a lot alike. I thought she was you at first.
ReplyDeleteBeginnings are tough, right? I stewed over mine for a long time, and then it just flowed. Yours will too. As will the sex. Wait, how'd I get from one to the other? That's my twisted, perverse brain, and your comment about having heard the line about inserting good luck throughout the night. Lucky you. Lucky hubs.
Twisted and perverted. I'm so glad you're the amazing queen of naughtiness I have come to know and love.
DeleteBeautiful thoughts! While there are a few painful parts of my teens years that I have wished many times that I could have avoided, all of them forced me to put down roots and grow - in my relationship with God, my relationships with family and friends, and just on the inside. So, I'm with you. Let's remember the blessings! :)
ReplyDeleteYay for writing "The End!"
I think one of the lessons we all need to learn is that God doesn't expect perfection. We can either get hung up on our mistakes and allow them to block us in or use them as a hurdle we can jump and get strength from.
DeleteI think, all our mistakes in our youth make us what we are today. Life would be pretty boring if we had done everything right :) Great post, Elizabeth. Congratulations to Yolanda.
ReplyDeleteThe screw-ups do make the best stories.
DeleteHehehe sounds like everything worked out for the best for you. :-)
ReplyDeleteMay as well make the best of all things. Can't change the past, so you may as well laugh at it.
DeleteOur past lives made us who we are. Yeah, I wish I had been smarter. There are times I hurt others that I will always regret, but I can't regret the person I am, and my past made me this way.
ReplyDeleteI think of times I've hurt people and you're right- that does make me cringe. It's a good reminder when people hurt me, to forgive and remember I have done my fair share of bitchy things too.
Delete