I read something (from IG and re-posted on a Substack) that middle age is really being 16 and not caring what people think anymore.
I'm 43 in August. I can say, I am still very much the 15-16 year old. In the 90's, I was embarrassed that I still loved being a girl scout that got to go camping and backpacking; now I re-live much of that time (now with PRIDE) with my older son in cub scouts. Devouring magazines like Sassy, Seventeen, and the Delia's catalogue has become listening to fashion/pop-culture podcasts and savoring my print subscription to Vogue. And embracing LONGING while figuring out who you were, thanks to Angela Chase and Felicity Porter, both played by actresses who I still adore watching.
I LOVE that and absolutely concur. How wonderful that you get to experience Scouts with your son now! I was thinking of getting a pair of roller skates, but these knees are not those of a 16 year old ;)
Gosh, what a vivid walk down memory lane! That picture of you is exactly how I remember you from when we first met. :)
Interestingly, my inner self is ALSO 15-16 years old. I remember when I first started teaching, I kept having this cognitive dissonance while standing in the front of the classroom, feeling like an imposter....because REALLY I was just a high school student too and should be sitting in the classroom desks learning, not standing in the front of the room teaching.
My inner self is full of crunchy permed hair, tight-rolled jeans, Honeydew Melon from the newly opened Bath & Body Works in the mall and the wall of heat and the smell of hot vinyl every time I opened the door of my first car in the heat of the Florida summer. It's full of small notebooks detailing every moment of studying, practicing, and work tasks, and of the combined nervous anticipation and dread of glossy college brochures stuffed in the family mailbox.
I wonder how many of us really feel like our teenage selves, and if so, why that might be?
It's so lovely to be in touch with people who still remember your younger self. I remember you when you first started teaching too—you may have had imposter syndrome, but I thought you were chic and wise. I still think so! Honeydew Melon! That smell is imprinted on me too. We're lucky to have those young women we were still standing beside us.
I read something (from IG and re-posted on a Substack) that middle age is really being 16 and not caring what people think anymore.
I'm 43 in August. I can say, I am still very much the 15-16 year old. In the 90's, I was embarrassed that I still loved being a girl scout that got to go camping and backpacking; now I re-live much of that time (now with PRIDE) with my older son in cub scouts. Devouring magazines like Sassy, Seventeen, and the Delia's catalogue has become listening to fashion/pop-culture podcasts and savoring my print subscription to Vogue. And embracing LONGING while figuring out who you were, thanks to Angela Chase and Felicity Porter, both played by actresses who I still adore watching.
I LOVE that and absolutely concur. How wonderful that you get to experience Scouts with your son now! I was thinking of getting a pair of roller skates, but these knees are not those of a 16 year old ;)
I've been watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and man, that hallway bullying...
Gosh, what a vivid walk down memory lane! That picture of you is exactly how I remember you from when we first met. :)
Interestingly, my inner self is ALSO 15-16 years old. I remember when I first started teaching, I kept having this cognitive dissonance while standing in the front of the classroom, feeling like an imposter....because REALLY I was just a high school student too and should be sitting in the classroom desks learning, not standing in the front of the room teaching.
My inner self is full of crunchy permed hair, tight-rolled jeans, Honeydew Melon from the newly opened Bath & Body Works in the mall and the wall of heat and the smell of hot vinyl every time I opened the door of my first car in the heat of the Florida summer. It's full of small notebooks detailing every moment of studying, practicing, and work tasks, and of the combined nervous anticipation and dread of glossy college brochures stuffed in the family mailbox.
I wonder how many of us really feel like our teenage selves, and if so, why that might be?
It's so lovely to be in touch with people who still remember your younger self. I remember you when you first started teaching too—you may have had imposter syndrome, but I thought you were chic and wise. I still think so! Honeydew Melon! That smell is imprinted on me too. We're lucky to have those young women we were still standing beside us.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻This was lovely and spot on.
Thanks, Dee <3
At 78, I can no longer feel my younger self. Hold on to your ability to be 16 again.
You make 78 look beautiful, Ginny. And you'll do the same for 79 soon!
Actually, I’ll be 78 next Saturday., thank you for the compliment!