Dear friends,
Joining Jen at The Bolin Bunch for her 10 on the 10th link-up. These posts are always fun to write and read. Today we are sharing 10 things we wish we could tell our high school selves.
10 Things I Would Tell High School Me
- You are not overweight. Period.
- Not everyone is cut out to be a scientist. Just because mom is a chemist and dad is a biochemist, it doesn’t mean you have to pursue a science-related career.
- Don’t wish away all that hair and those waves. Someday you will wish you still had the head full of hair you had when you were younger.
- While it’s true that few people have a car wreck on the day they get their driver’s license, you will become a (slightly) better driver.
- Tell someone about the boys sexually harassing you. Get help. Mr. Hancock, your earth science teacher, may be too intimidated by the same boys to do anything to help you. But find someone else to tell. A teacher, mom and dad, the school nurse. Chances are you aren’t the only girl those guys are harassing.
- You can’t and won’t get pregnant from sitting on a boy’s lap or bathing in a tub after a boy has used the same tub. Or by playing catch in the front yard with a football and having Glen gently tackle you.
- Although you are so shy now that you are scared to sneeze in class or get up to sharpen your pencil, you will become a little more outgoing.
- As you grow up, animals are going to become some of your best friends. When no one else will take our dog for a walk or play with him, you should. Give Buckshot a better life.
- Your sister and your brother will be your best friends in life, remember that on good days and bad.
- Listen to the stories mom and dad tell you, learn from the lessons they teach, be more respectful and patient with them.
From PC:
- Don’t be so serious.
- Don’t worry so much.
Similarly, from my sister, Valerie:
- Get out there. Be bold and don’t be so afraid of everything.
Seems a lot of us Baby Boomers were scaredy cats or at the very least, timid and shy.
Finally, from my brother, Kevin:
- Don’t let others define who you are.
- You can be whomever you want to be, just believe in yourself, work hard for what you want and dedicate yourself to being successful.
- 90% of what you learn in college will never be used again. Why pay tens of thousands of dollars for an education that isn’t useful.
- Not everyone needs a college degree to be successful, but you have to understand how to manage time, money and must understand history.
Your Turn
How would your list of 10 things to tell your high school self read? Any similarities with what I have written? Were you timid, a worry wart, shy? I posted that question on my blog FB page and got some thoughtful answers:
- start exercising and eating better now
- stay out of the sun
- he isn’t worth it
Words of wisdom right there.
Thank you for coming by. Still working on reading blog posts and leaving comments but Lauren, Lucia and Francisco are here for the weekend. Might not have a lot of screen time but I will get caught up!! Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums, mommas, mommies, mamas, moms and mothers out there. Hope you are spoiled to your heart’s content!
Hugs and kisses,
Love it!
Here are a couple I might say…
Don’t worry, your height and long legs will NOT be intimidating to men, just HS boys.
Be proud of being smart, don’t waste energy trying to hide it.
Be proud of being smart. Such great advice for high school you. I used to try to dumb myself down because I had a pretty good vocabulary. Now, after 25 years of talking with elementary school kids, I hardly use poly-syllabic words!!
Good advice! I wonder if the high school you would have listened?! Great photos, you really haven’t changed much at all.
High school me would have listened to some of my advice, I think. But head-strong, stubborn me would have pooh-poohed a lot of it, too!!
Great post and great words of wisdom! Oh to be a teen again with the knowledge we have now! But, now that I say that I know I’d never go back if I could. I love what I made of it all, good and bad.
Nope, I would never go back either. Well, maybe for a second to thank my high school boyfriend for being so good.
I agree about the photos! I would tell myself that 1) the adult world will welcome you 2) you will have lots of dates once you leave high school 3) you are perfect the way you are 4) you don’t have to work so hard to be successful!
Great advice for high school you. Perfect the way you are is one we all could have benefited from, I am afraid. So many of us were lacking confidence.
I was a worrier, thought that I’d never get a boyfriend, wanted to have straight hair, wanted to be taller. Heavens, how many things can a girl feel bad about? None of those things matter now nor have mattered for most of my life! Certainly, insecure girls were ripe for sexual harassment. My Grade 9-10 French teacher routinely harassed girl students and none of us complained to the administration. A girl needs to feel good about herself and have a big voice when she needs it. You have not changed very much since your high school days.
Unbelievable that your French teacher harassed girls! They seem to prey on poor souls who are too timid to do anything about the harassment. So sad.
Love this great advice to your high school self! We definitely get wiser as we age but that’s also what shapes us into who we are today! I would tell myself not to let others define us, stay out of the sun and you will become a little more outgoing!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Exactly!! What we experienced waaaaaaay (for me waaaaaaay) back in high school made us who we are today. As creepy as my ex-husband/my daughters’ dad was, still is, I wouldn’t wish him out of my life because he gave me the best babies in the world.
Stay out of the sun is a good one. Oh, my!!
If we could only go back and give ourselves the advice of the wisdom we have now…
We are so much wiser now, aren’t we. But that is the way life was designed, I guess.
Wow Leslie! These are some great responses and so thought provoking. I do wish I could go back and tell my high school self some things – oh boy,I wonder if it would have made a difference in how my life turned out. So interesting and so personal, thanks for sharing!
xo,
Kellyann
Would you undo or redo things that happened in high school? I never really want to wish events or people gone from my past but there is one guy who I could totally have done without. Ha!
That’s crappy about the boys who harassed you. Great advice you have here.
Thank you, friend. There was a gang of guys who fairly terrorized the halls of my high school.
I loved reading this Leslie. Although I’m not sure my younger self would listen….she was awfully stubborn, LOL!!
But I do wish that I had learned to stand up for myself more. And stopped worrying all the time…
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Oh, stop worrying all the time. I need to hear that and obey that even now in my old age.
My only regret from high school is that I didn’t take the school work more seriously. In retrospect, I attended a fabulous high school and it had offered me the best in education! I attended two colleges after I graduated high school and neither of them could compare scholastically to that high school. I regret that I didn’t pay more attention a lot!!!
Also, I was in a big accident the first day I got my drivers license. I was making a right turn from the wrong lane and a nice handsome gentleman broadsided me with his brand new Corvette, which he just pulled out of the shop. UGH!
However, he was so taken aback with my youth and beauty ( ahem….) he asked my mother if he could date me. Naturally my mother told him NO (I was only 16) but she persuaded him NOT to press any charges or file a claim through the insurance companies.
Ahhhh……so wonderful to be young.
Ha!! Love this story. High five on having a wreck on your first day that you got your driver’s license. Twinsies!! Your accident sounds more spectacular than mine. I just plowed down a storage shed in a church parking lot.
I think a lot of teenagers are shy just because they are so unsure of themselves. I know I was! I’d tell myself to have more confidence! It took my parents so long to let me get my driver’s license I had so much practice! But I’ve had a few mishaps since then!
Oh, the heartache my parents could have avoided if they had been slower to let me drive. I think your parents were onto something.
What a cool glimpse of who you were in high school! And a fun writing prompt. Hmm, what would I tell my high school self? Someday you’ll appreciate your thick, curly hair. It’s okay to not know what you want to do in life, take some time to explore before making a decision. You are NOT fat. Haha.
High five on appreciating our thick curly hair and telling our high school selves we aren’t F-A-T!
What a great exercise, Leslie. I loved learning a little more about you and also thinking about what advice I would give myself. I guess the top three things would be 1) It’s okay to do things you aren’t good at just for the fun of it. Besides, that’s how you learn. 2) The human body–your body–is amazing. Appreciate it more for what it does and worry less about how it looks. Treat it well. 3) Everything is temporary. Savor the good times and hang on through the difficult. You are so much stronger than you know.
Girl, your advice for high school you is spectacular. Everything is temporary. That should be a bumper sticker, tattoo, graphic tee.