A few years back, as I was watching Oprah, she had on some mature women who are choosing to age gracefully. These women talked about the pressures to stay thin and beautiful, to do whatever it takes to maintain that.
Oprah then went on to ask them if they could give one piece of advise to their younger self what would it be? So here are the 10 things I would tell my younger self.
1) Nurture the friendships you have, make them a priority in your life. Boys will come and go but your girlfriends are for life. Or they can be if you treat them right.
2) Forget the tanning beds. Wrinkles will come whether you believe it or not, so protect your skin.
3) Enjoy your time being a kid and teenager. Once you have passed that time there is no going back. Soon enough there will be a husband, children, and bills. So enjoy where you are at.
4) Surround yourself with people who make you feel good about yourself and what your doing. I remember all to well some so called 'friends' and they did nothing but make you feel bad about yourself.
5) Be kind to those you normally wouldn't think of associating with. Words hurt and that person is someone's child.
6) Continue on with your healthy habits and continue on in sports because it is a great deal more difficult to try to establish those healthy habits as an adult.
7) Don't start drinking coffee. Teeth loose their luster and your pearly whites WILL fade to a soft yellow.
8) Actually try in school. I don't regret all the fun, I don't even regret skipping class to go have some fun. Maybe try to keep a balance with it all.
These next two are to my young married self, man did we make mistakes, too many to count, but here are two pieces of advice I would want to pass on.
9) Travel and have adventures together before the kids come. Once they are here it's so much more difficult. Even if you can find reliable people to watch them, your heart is always back home wondering if things are alright.
10) Love isn't always a feeling. It's not butterflies, soft kisses and tender moments. (although it sure starts off that way) Love is seeing that person acting like a jack-ass and even though thinking to yourself at the time, 'what a moron' you can still go later and grab their hand and ask how their day was. Love is a constant, it's the liking part that goes up and down. Try to know the difference.
So my question is what would you tell your former self, given your life experiences. Look forward to reading the results.
5 comments:
These are so good, Jody. I'm so with you on #9 - we always thought we didn't have enough $ to travel, but we should have just gone anyway.
I wish I had broken lose from my friends and tried new things. I never wanted to do things like school plays or clubs UNLESS I had a friend to do it with. That was so short-sighted. I look back now and realize I missed out on a lot of opportunities because I didn't want to go alone.
Cocotte- One of my regrets it not travelling before kids too. Even to have just gone camping, or on a road trip... (sigh)
I was the same way back in high school, if I didn't have at least one friend to go with me I would not go. I actually am like that a bit now-shame really. I will have to work on that.
Good stuff, girl. I love your heart and, for the record... Your teeth are NOT yellowed and you have nary a wrinkle. You are beautiful!
I remember something about baby oil being sent by the gallons to the dock... is that similar to tanning beds? ;-)
I vaguely remember something about people using baby oil with iodine in it to absorb more sun. We were nuts back then!
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