If I knew that, I would know how to make these blog prompts better.
No one can know the answer to this question. You may think you can, but you cannot. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. You can lose everything, you can gain everything. You have no idea what your biggest challenge will be in six months.
Edit: after I wrote this this morning, which will now be yesterday morning as this is a scheduled post, I got into a car accident. It was a normal day, I was coming home from the store, and Bam. A car accident. A cascade of unpleasant events occurred from that point on. I am OK (I think) and the person involved the accident was also OK. But what I’m saying is, life can change in an instant. There is no way to know what your biggest challenge will be in six months. There is no way to know what your biggest challenge will be today.
It’s OK to feel like you don’t fit in. Please don’t pluck your eyebrows so thin. They will never grow back. Learn how to drive mom’s stick shift. There will come a time when they won’t exist anymore. Crazy, right? Do not get rid of your white denim Guess jean jacket. In 2024 you’ll be wanting it back. (But thanks for keeping the blue denim Guess jean jacket.) Don’t worry about that boy. Or that other boy. I know, it was sad when Matt moved away. You’ll never know what happened to him. But remember that day when he put a dime in your penny loafers and jammed it so far in you couldn’t get it out? Well, when the shoes got too old and you remembered the dime was in there, you spent an hour digging it out. Then you taped the dime to your journal. It’s still there. You should’ve asked Mark R. if you could’ve had a ride in his Cabrio. He would’ve said yes. Remember how you and your friend would pass notes to him in the hallway? You’ll keep those letters. But you’ll never look at them until now when you’re writing this and you’re thinking about it.
The whirlwind that was junior, senior and then freshman college year will be worth it. Because of all of that, you learned to see everyone equally. And you’ll never forget hiding in the dorm closet with the alarm going off. Don’t worry about being shy. As you get older, you’ll learn to be more extroverted, even though inside, you feel the same as your teenage self. Still misunderstood.
Enjoy the friends you have, because as you get older, it becomes harder to make new friends. Never lose your love for animals.(Spoiler: you don’t.) You will keep the friend you’ve known since you were seven. The one that made mud pies with you. She also threw up on you and your stuffed panda on the bus in third grade, but we won’t talk about that. It remains a sore subject, and she still laughs about it.
You’ll reminisce about high school, but you won’t ever want to go back. And when you get to sophomore year college, daddy dies. It happens before you can fix your broken relationship. So you’re stuck with a lot of loose ends. You will work the rest of your life on that, and many times, not know what to do with them.
There will be a point in time where you will regret arguing and fighting with mom. Try not to do it too much. You can’t get that time back. Please, please listen.
Your life will not turn out as you planned. Nothing usually does. Your braces will come off and your teeth will look straight but then 15 years later, they will go back to where they were. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you that part. Sorry.
You’ll go to some tennis tournaments and have the time of your life. I’m not even gonna tell you what happens. I’m just gonna let you live it.
P.S. Do not get rid of the peach high top Converse. You know the ones where you wrote “I love Johnny Depp ❤️” on the sole? Don’t get rid of those. (She did.)
Just always remember to keep smiling and laughing even when things get really difficult. We got this.
16 year old Amy, you should have kept this velvet newsboy cap…
I got the sandals circa 2005. The featured image is a close representation of them but not exactly. I couldn’t find the exact model. I should have bought two pair, but I never do that. I never think of it until I no longer have the item.
Above is a photo of me opening birthday presents wearing The Sandals. Two months later I would be at the U.S. Open enjoying a night tennis match wearing these same shoes. If you’ve ever been to New York City in late August, you know it’s hot and it’s humid. And when you’re watching Rafa Nadal in a night match at the same time a baseball game and a concert are going on in the same complex, and there’s exactly one late bus to take you back to the hotel in Manhattan, you know what is about to happen.
We were watching the match in Arthur Ashe stadium. At the time, there was no roof. Arthur Ashe Stadium is the largest tennis stadium in the world. Just some random trivia for you there. I’m putting off telling you what happened to my shoes.
So, as I was saying, we were watching the match on a humid night in a stadium with no roof. We were staying in Manhattan, not Queens, where the stadium is, so I didn’t pay much attention to the weather forecast for Queens.
When it rained the first time, I wasn’t too nervous. It rained off and on throughout the match. My shoes were OK. Rafa won the match. We (herd of cattle) were all moving out of the stadium. At the same time, the baseball game and the concert were moving out of their respective building and stadium. Then it started to thunderstorm.
By the time my friend and I reached the parking lot, it was pouring. Remember I said there was one late bus to get us back to Manhattan? We couldn’t find it right away and it was about 2 AM. I believe the depart time for the bus was 2:15 AM, We were running toward the location where we thought it would be. Yes, I was running in my sandals. My beloved sandals.
We finally saw the bus. We reached it and we were drenched. I thought of my shoes, but I thought I could dry them out and everything would be fine.
And for the most part, they were. But over a few years, they started to dry rot. One summer day, I reached for them, took them out of their shiny box. It was white with black lettering. The sandal straps were stretched out. And rotted.
I said goodbye to my strappy sandals that day. I never tried to replace them, but there are a few out there that look similar. But they will never be my Nine West strappy wedge heeled sandals that sat through a night match at the U.S. Open and ran through a thunderstorm to a bus waiting to take me back to Manhattan.
I would like to demonstrate for you all how I budget. The following is an artistic representation of my budgeting practices.
Me at the grocery store, mathing.My cat helping out. She authorized the $5000 per month budget on cat food and treats but I said no. So we’re getting $5000 of cat food and treats this month.Me at the gas pump. Me figuring out my dark chocolate budget.Me realizing I just got my paycheck and I’m already -$27.33.
Several times, in fact. Having inherited my maternal family’s fashion instincts, I’m a rebel. But I must warn you, only the first time was unintentional. All of the rest were intentional.
I’m sure it all started when I was a toddler and my mom made me dresses that made all the other toddlers envious.
Check out these patent leather Mary Janes, OK? ‘Nuff said.
And it continued from there. In high school, I had all the latest fashions. I regularly wore crop tops with leggings and high boots. I created my own signature style. I remember distinctly one day I wore a crocheted white crop top sweater over a crop top tank with jeans. I was sent to the principal’s office by a teacher. She wasn’t even my teacher. She was a teacher standing in the hall, looking me up and down disapprovingly. She told me I should go into my classroom and get my things and go immediately to the principal‘s office. I walked into my classroom and I told everyone what just happened.
I ended up in the vice principal‘s office. I sat in the chair across from her desk, and she asked me if I knew what I had done wrong. I said no. She said my outfit was inappropriate. I asked why. She said my stomach is showing. I have a 23-inch waist, and the styles were meant to show off your waist. Just like they are now. Fashion always comes back around again. Remember that. (I didn’t say that but that’s what I was thinking.) She said she was going to call my mother at work. She asked me what her phone number was. First of all, they should have that on file. Secondly, I started to giggle. She didn’t like that. I told her to call my mom, but my mom had bought the outfit. for me, so… She didn’t like that either. I told her the number and I waited for her to call my mother.
“Yes, ma’am, do you know what your daughter is wearing to school today?
Yes, it is a white sweater that is cropped and showing her belly.
I see. Well, she can’t wear this. She has to go home and change.”
She hung up the phone. “Your mother said she bought that for you and she thought you looked very nice in it this morning when you left the house.”
I smirked.
“You can’t wear that. You have to go home and change, and then you have to come right back.”
I went back to my classroom pissed off. I got there and I told everyone what happened. “She says I have to go home and change and then come back.” My peers thought that was ridiculous. Some of them were hiding crop tops underneath their jean jackets.
I walked home, which was pretty far considering I took the bus to school. I don’t know what I put on, but it wasn’t as nice as what I had on when I left the first time. I did end up walking back to school. I didn’t cut class.
That was the first documented occasion of a dress code offense.
I’ve had several more at work places. I do not apologize for it. If they want me to change my clothes, I will. But I will always try to be fashionable first.
One time, I had a cute plaid jumper short set. I wish I would’ve kept that outfit. But anyway, I wore that to the job that I had while I was in college. All the ladies in the kitchen design department were up in arms. I was violating the code, my boss and owner of the store at the time told me. I said, “I can’t help it, I have to be fashionable.” He didn’t make me go home and change, but I dressed slightly more boring after that.
A couple years later, I graduated with a major in fashion and a minor in theater/costuming. No one is going to take away my fashion. My mother encouraged me to dress uniquely and fashionably while living on a budget. She set the example, I’m just following. It’s a form of art expression. And I’ll never give it up.
There is a famous saying by Coco Chanel: “I don’t do fashion, I am fashion.” One year for my birthday, my former manager at my current job bought me a journal with that saying on the cover. I’ve used up the entire journal, but I saved the hard-bound part with the saying on it. I have it on display in my house.
This how I break the law (un)intentionally and I am not about to stop.
Fashion and sass, that’s what little girls are made of.
“It's Amy,” I said. 