16

Hi Loves!

In continuing with the Letters to my child(ren) the next topic in our series is:
List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could...OK...even I am only slightly older than 16 this may take me a little while to work on...hang in there though, I am sure it will be worth the read... ;)

Love you to pieces-
Mommy

I was a Junior in high school in Virginia when I was 16...let's see here...

1) Your Dad wasn't kidding around-if you do not learn to drive a stick shift, you will not have a car to drive to school...you should probably consider taking him up on his several offers to teach you well in advance of the day before school starts...this will make the trip to school the next day MUCH smoother and far less embarrassing...you should probably also thank your dad for his willingness to teach you to drive a 5 speed, because this is a very useful skill set that most people do not possess and it comes in handy more times than you will remember as you continue to grow up.

2) You will have plenty of relationships throughout your life, even though it feels like  your heart is broken-you will be okay.  There really are more fish in the sea, and PLEASE remember that the sea is MUCH bigger than Hickory High School, the city of Chesapeake, or even the state of Virginia (side note-this does not mean that I tried to date all of the guys in those areas, I am really just trying to give some perspective here...).  You won't meet the Love of your Life for a while, so PLEASE try to enjoy life and not focus on who is dating who...

3) Make sure you make time for people in your life AFTER you move...(OK, this is cheating a little bit, because I didn't technically move until I was 17, but it is important)  This is something you will regret when you are much older.

4) It is never a good idea to drink a lot of cheap beer in one sitting...especially when you are 16.  I firmly believe that my extreme dislike for the taste of beer is a direct result of downing a lot of cheap beer in one sitting...I recently told a former coworker of mine that I did not like beer, and he told me that it was impossible for someone not to like beer based on the fact that there are over 3,000 types out there, so he is making it his mission to find me a beer that I do like...which, obviously has been put on hold based on the fact that one of you is currently growing in my belly...but eventually I will be accepting his challenge (side note, I am not encouraging you to drink underage, I am merely pointing out that just because you had one or 2 bad experiences with something doesn't mean you should give up on it forever...people change...and as Hannah just learned, you have to try new things because you just might like them...)

5) If you see a toilet on the side of the road, make sure it doesn't have any water in it before you pick it up and put it in the back of your friend's car...Stop shaking your head immediately...So one day I was in the car with my friend Alana and her sister Audrey, I am not sure from where we were headed but, we were on our way home and it was dark outside.  We all happened to notice a toilet on the side of the road...which you just don't see everyday, so of course, the natural thing to do is to stop, pick it up and put it in the back of the car...obviously.  We may or may not have gotten toilet water on us-I prefer not to think about that though.  We then had to decide what we were going to do with this gem!  After careful consideration, we decided that the perfect new home for this toilet would be our friend Stewart's front yard...complete with a few construction cones and some toilet paper...(I am hoping to find the pictures of these shenanigans for you to enjoy)

6) If you put a toilet in some one's front yard, be prepared for payback.  So apparently Stewart was so excited to have a new shiny potty in his yard that he decided that both Alana and I needed new yard decorations as well...so a few days later I walked out of my house to go to my car and drive to school (I think I might have even been picking up Alana that morning...) and I was greeted by several bright orange construction cones with pinwheels coming from the top of them on my car...so I said to my self, "Self...where is that toilet?"  I drove to pick up Alana, and was then made aware of where the toilet was...it was in her front yard loaded with cheerios and toy boats...this prank war went on for a while...I can't recall all of the details, but I do know that Mom and I were coming home late one night only to discover that our front yard had transformed into a zoo...of VERY large cardboard animals...(think refrigerator and wardrobe boxes here, not standard cardboard boxes...)  Prank wars are all fun and games until Mom gets involved...

7) Pack your sunscreen when you go for overnighters in the OBX because frozen individually packaged slices of American cheese are not very effective at easing the sting of a sunburn.  (Are you hanging you head in shame/disgust right now?)  So Alana and I went on an overnight trip to the OBX with our friend Blair...We decided that we were only going to lay out on the roof of the place we were staying at for about an hour and a half...and it was overcast outside, so how bad could it be, right?...very bad...worst idea we had in a while...(you know, worst only after not making sure there was no water in the toilet we scored from the side of the road...) we were fried...all 3 of us.  We didn't have any aloe or any sort of cooling lotion, and the only thing we came up with to help the burn was to freeze the slices of cheese (in their individual plastic wrappings) and then place them on our burned bodies until they melted from the heat (gross, I know) then put them back in the freezer to refreeze, and start the process over again...don't worry, I am 98% confident no one ate those pieces of cheese...

8) Unless you are prepared to choke and have your eyes burn-or are in Danger-spraying pepper spray in an enclosed area is not a good idea...I mean, you would think that this would go without saying, but no...My mom always had pepper spray on her set of keys...and I came home from work one night (it was about midnight) and while trying to get a snack and wind down, I happened to see Mom's keys out of the corner of my eye...hello pepper spray...Of course I was smart enough to make sure that the spray would be away from my face-give me a little bit of credit here) but not smart enough to realize that if you spray it into the sink while you are standing right in front of it, the pepper particles will still get in your eyes and the back of your throat and cause you to have a horrible coughing fit...just know that no matter how good of an idea you think it is, you really don't need to see what pepper spray looks like...nor should you spray it in the house...

9) You are going to find yourself struggling to be happy with your weight-for a very long time.  You will find that once you start losing weight that you feel awesome but then you realize that you will never be satisfied with the amount of weight you lose...even if it is dang near 100 pounds, you will still want to lose more...and you will be hard on yourself when you don't-Listen up sister, your weight does not define who you are as a person.  You find the love of your life and have a beautiful family-and they all love you no matter what number the scale shows.  Stop obsessing about it and enjoy your teenage years because once they are gone-they are gone for good...and then you have to pay bills and no one likes to pay bills.

10) Always make sure you have enough gas in your car.  You will find that when that gas light comes on, you really don't have too much longer before you find yourself (and Alana because it was your turn to drive that morning) stranded on the side of someones farm having to call up Mr. Mills to come save you-and no, you don't have a cell phone yet-so you actually have to go INTO the strange farmer's house to call for help...(Stranger Danger anyone?) Mr. Mills brings you enough gas in a can to get you to the gas station and then gives you each a few dollars to get a treat to help you get over the traumatizing experience of coasting into someones farmland...This will not be the only time you coast into a destination on the gas fumes in your tank...but luckily the next 2 times (yeah, obviously I did not learn from my first experience with not filling up the tank) you coasted into the gas station and you were able to save yourself...this is the very reason why you don't like to let your gas tank fall below half empty...(as a side note, unrelated to gas but related to car trouble- really thank your dad for teaching you how to change a flat tire because this will come in handy later as well...and that night that you and your suite mate find yourselves stranded at 10 pm on a Friday night on the side of the interstate because you blew a tire and are on an incline and it isn't safe for you to change it...remember to rephrase your response of "Yeah-there is a donut in the trunk" to "Yes sir, there is a spare tire in the trunk" because then he is less likely to give you a dirty look and walk away and more likely to actually stay and help you...)


You are a good kid-you work hard and you do well in school-cut yourself some slack and enjoy life-you have a great one!
Love Future You...