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Friday, September 14, 2012

Dear Teenage Me,

I know you had a tough time figuring out who you are the past 12 years and now I want to write this letter to encourage you.

First of all, you're a night owl. If there is some way you could change it while you're young it would be really nice to break that habit early on. When you get to be my age breaking the night owl tendency doesn't get any easier. Your children may inherit those same tendencies.

How about your early years? The bullies you faced in Elementary, go ahead and forgive them. You might actually become friends with them later on in your life. You can go ahead and thank your dad for teasing you now. It really will toughen you up and help you react better to kids giving you a hard time. You will learn how people love to pick on people that give them the reaction they are looking for. You will feel really good in high school when a kid picks on you and you have the perfect come back for it. Which makes him and his friends laugh at how witty that come back was. That will be the day that you realize you are no longer subject to bullies. You find strength during that time.

You will realize that you don't have to cry and act weak to get attention. People will notice you more if you let the strength in your personality shine through.

Thank your Dad for saying that you and your sister can't date until you're 18. That makes it super easy to turn guys down in both Junior High and High School. There actually is a sense of freedom in boundaries. You don't have to have your heart broken like you see with so many of your friends around you. Peer pressure to date will be a non-issue for you because you can always fall back on the phrase, "My dad won't let me date." And believe it or not your dad doesn't mind you using him as your excuse.

Oh, very important would be to learn about personalities early. I realize that you will not heed this advice until you meet your husband (which by the way is worth waiting for). You will learn a lot about personalities in a marriage and family class you will take with your husband. You are going to wish you had known this important aspect of relationships much sooner. I think that might have saved your mother some tears if you had learned the differences between the two of you before slamming the door.
I highly recommend you read "The Five Love Languages". It will one day open your eyes to understand why your mom will feel terrible when you don't let her buy something for you. You may feel you are being independent but sometimes it's okay to accept your mother's love.

When you reach my age you'll cherish getting to go out with your mom. You will then see going shopping as quality time and both of you will be happy.

Oh and by the way, your future husband will have similar personality traits as your mom. That actually makes a good combination if you learn to work with those differences. The older you get the more like your dad you'll realize you are. One day your husband will tell you, "Wow, you sound so much like your dad!" Don't worry you'll be pretty sure he means it as a compliment.

Let's see what else I should warn you about. I'm not going to tell you how many children you will have. Let's just say it's more than just the 2 you will think is all God has in mind for you. Oh and you will do quite a bit of babysitting. It really is easier when they're your own kids.

Another piece of advice I better throw in here. Your little brother will one day hit his growth spurt and will suddenly be taller than you. You better watch out how you treat him while he's small. Payback is tough. :-)

College: that will be the big question in the upcoming years. Another piece of advice you won't heed but I'll go ahead and tell you anyway. Pick something you're good at. God has given you talents. Don't be afraid to use them. You'll think you need to pick something big and important. You'll decide to go to college for elementary education but you really should go with journalism and writing instead. When you get to be my age you will wonder why you spent so much time on frivolous stuff when you could have perfected what you are already good at and already enjoy doing. You'll look back and wonder why you didn't get a job at a newspaper office or some other publishing company. You would have done really well at that.

Finally, never settle for anything less than God's best for you. I know you are now starting a list of everything you are looking for in a husband. Keep waiting. Don't settle for anyone else. I know you're going to feel discouraged. You'll even think your list is too strict. Keep waiting though. He really is out there. God's going to bring him from another state. You won't understand why God chose to call your dad to preach during your senior year, but once you meet the guy he finds for you in seminary it all becomes clear. You'll be very glad you waited.

I can probably think of a lot of other advice but you are rather stubborn. You will learn a lot just from living life. Keep reading your Bible! That will be the biggest help you have on life's journey.

And be encouraged that even with the mistakes you will inevitably make, I'm very happy with how well your life turns out.

Sincerely,
Your future self,
Stacie

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Emily Freeman, author of the book Graceful wrote a letter to her teenage self. She encouraged other writers and her blog followers to do the same. You can see all our link ups on her blog at here

I really like the idea. If you want to write a letter to your teenage self and want to share it with me, leave a comment on my blog post and I'll go read your letter. :-) Have fun!

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