Getting in Touch with Your Past
Our local newspaper this winter ran a series of letters from successful women to their former selves to help show how they turned their lives around. During yesterday’s long run, I thought up my own letter to me at age 16. Once home, I quickly jotted down my thoughts and now I encourage everyone to do the same. Share your letter if you want or just hold on to it for safekeeping. You might, like me, be pleasantly surprised what you discover about yourself.
Dear Anne,
Your friend Janet is about to tell you there’s a job opening at her restaurant. Your parents aren’t keen on you working, but your soul is sagging under an increasingly heavy burden at home. School is no refuge, I know. You’ve been falsely accused of plagiarizing a poem and teachers are making an example out of you. Your peers rejected your application for the school newspaper. There’s even talk you’ll be kicked out of the national honor society, whose membership is hard to come by on this campus.
Here’s what you’re gonna do: Tell your mother you need to buy bread and on the way home apply for Janet’s $2.26 per hour hostess job. Your future happiness hinges on it.
First, I should warn you: you suck at the job. The manager starts pressuring you to quit before he has to fire you. But don’t cave because Holly gets hired. She’s extremely nice -- and competent. She teaches you the tricks of the trade and becomes one of your closest friends. And make sure you work Mother’s Day weekend 1979 so you can exchange a few words with the new dishwasher. He’s very cute and before you know it, you’re in love. Then he leaves for college, while you stay behind to finish high school and join a hospital’s radiology technician program.
The dishwasher, though, will convince you instead to go to college. He remembers that scandalous poem (“That was you?!”) and he believes you have talent. Your parents warn you are on your own, so you’ll save even more money than before from your restaurant job. The low wages, lousy hours and an evil manager (I bet you can guess which one) motivate you to land a better paying job at Busch Gardens. You’ll go on to remember the amusement park with great fondness, as will your future family.
College is the opposite of high school: it’s enjoyable. But it’s expensive and you’ll soon realize your savings, loans and short-lived academic scholarship won’t last. Apply for a paid position at the student newspaper. This time you won’t be rejected; you’ll discover your future career. You even graduate the top student in your major and ace graduate school. So don’t sweat that C in chemistry.
That dishwasher will join the Coast Guard, but before he does, he takes you to the steakhouse where you first met and places an engagement ring on your finger. You’ll travel all over the country together, and you’ll return to that restaurant only once, when family gathers to bury your father-in-law. It’s now a radically remodeled Mexican restaurant, but you’ll feel a rush when you take your two daughters into the restroom and discover the tiny stall and single sink are exactly as you remember.
Those two daughters become bright, beautiful (and tall!) young women. Holly heads to New York City to launch a highly successful and prolific modeling career. To this day you can count on her to be there for you. And the dishwasher? Well, he turns out to be a darn good cook too.
--Anne
P.S. Brush up on the symptoms and treatment for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It's about to ruin your summer vacation.
Dear Anne,
Your friend Janet is about to tell you there’s a job opening at her restaurant. Your parents aren’t keen on you working, but your soul is sagging under an increasingly heavy burden at home. School is no refuge, I know. You’ve been falsely accused of plagiarizing a poem and teachers are making an example out of you. Your peers rejected your application for the school newspaper. There’s even talk you’ll be kicked out of the national honor society, whose membership is hard to come by on this campus.
Here’s what you’re gonna do: Tell your mother you need to buy bread and on the way home apply for Janet’s $2.26 per hour hostess job. Your future happiness hinges on it.
First, I should warn you: you suck at the job. The manager starts pressuring you to quit before he has to fire you. But don’t cave because Holly gets hired. She’s extremely nice -- and competent. She teaches you the tricks of the trade and becomes one of your closest friends. And make sure you work Mother’s Day weekend 1979 so you can exchange a few words with the new dishwasher. He’s very cute and before you know it, you’re in love. Then he leaves for college, while you stay behind to finish high school and join a hospital’s radiology technician program.
The dishwasher, though, will convince you instead to go to college. He remembers that scandalous poem (“That was you?!”) and he believes you have talent. Your parents warn you are on your own, so you’ll save even more money than before from your restaurant job. The low wages, lousy hours and an evil manager (I bet you can guess which one) motivate you to land a better paying job at Busch Gardens. You’ll go on to remember the amusement park with great fondness, as will your future family.
College is the opposite of high school: it’s enjoyable. But it’s expensive and you’ll soon realize your savings, loans and short-lived academic scholarship won’t last. Apply for a paid position at the student newspaper. This time you won’t be rejected; you’ll discover your future career. You even graduate the top student in your major and ace graduate school. So don’t sweat that C in chemistry.
That dishwasher will join the Coast Guard, but before he does, he takes you to the steakhouse where you first met and places an engagement ring on your finger. You’ll travel all over the country together, and you’ll return to that restaurant only once, when family gathers to bury your father-in-law. It’s now a radically remodeled Mexican restaurant, but you’ll feel a rush when you take your two daughters into the restroom and discover the tiny stall and single sink are exactly as you remember.
Those two daughters become bright, beautiful (and tall!) young women. Holly heads to New York City to launch a highly successful and prolific modeling career. To this day you can count on her to be there for you. And the dishwasher? Well, he turns out to be a darn good cook too.
--Anne
P.S. Brush up on the symptoms and treatment for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It's about to ruin your summer vacation.
