You are stepping into what could very well be the most charmed years of your life. You have a driver’s license and a car, and a very long leash. I cannot imagine what our parents were thinking, or what they must have gone through those long nights you were out, but I’m sure they lost more sleep then than they ever did when we were just born. At least when you were an infant they knew where the hell you were while you were keeping them from sleep. How we survived our own stupidity, I will never know. There must be some big assed plans for us lurking somewhere.
At 16, you seek love and adventure, and you’re not too picky about where you find either one. But I have a secret… that girl, you know the one you hang out with the most, the cute blond who always sits near you during drama club, she’s the one. The One. Those strange feelings you have for her? Yeah, they’re real, and they won’t go away even after 35 years. She’s still sexy as hell at 51, by the way.
There will come a night in your 18th year, when you both give into your passions, a night when you end up leaving, promising to never speak of it again…Please, speak of it again, and again. Turn back before climbing into your car, go back and kiss her again. And again.
Accept those feelings. You love her, she loves you. Don’t waste those precious years on fear and respectability. You tossed respectability out the window by giving up, but you can always go back and build it again.
Do not, under any circumstance, listen to that bastard “guidance counselor.” Go into that son of a bitch’s office and get those college forms. Do not put them back after he tells you you’re not college material. You are. You are smart, smarter than he’ll ever be. Take that narrow road, that scary one that leads away from societal norms and become that woman in the shadows.
The woman I wish we’d become sooner. I’m still working on getting there, but it would have made a world of difference to at least one other person if I’d started earlier, if I’d listened to my heart instead of my head.
The marriages will fail and the guilt you’ll carry will be heavy, but not just from the failings; from the realization that one more life would have been different, better, had you listened to your heart in the first place.
I accept where I am now, and my regrets are few; those I have are salved by the love of, and for, my children, and the love of my live and soul, Tam…the cute blond…
Love always,
Karen at 51
Great post.
ReplyDeleteLove you too. :)
ReplyDeleteTam
Oh, this was beautiful. Kids today have some things much harder, but I think for issues like coming out, at least in my community, it's a lot better. There is a total acceptance of kids who are bi-curious, and I really haven't seen anyone treated negatively who comes out. My daughter has a number of gay and lesbian friends. Then again, this is Ann Arbor, and reality doesn't come here often, so I'm sure in other places it's much harder.
ReplyDelete^-^
ReplyDeleteThis letter has got me grinning from ear to ear. You & Tam are so cute, I could pop...
I can't believe how quickly this year has gone either... @_@ Like water through my fingers.
I'm terribly excited that starting Wednesday morning, at 0730, I have 10 days off. In a row. =D I'm planning to enjoy myself to the fullest. ^-^
Glad your most minor minion didn't burn his kitchen down... I feel anxiety for him & his cooking adventures... lolz... Hoping he & Tam had a good day baking pies, and that you got to enjoy the fruits (or pumpkins) of their labor. =D
XOXO
Awww, Karen, you got me bawling my eyes out here. This is so beautiful. It is such a fantabulous love story. You know, all of us have things we wish we had done differently - I have a roomful of them - but the most important thing is that things work out in the end. And they have.
ReplyDelete'The marriages will fail and the guilt you’ll carry will be heavy, but not just from the failings; from the realization that one more life would have been different, better, had you listened to your heart in the first place.' You are killing me with this. Killing me because you just GET it. It is so hard to listen to our hearts - we need such courage to do so. I can't tell you how happy I am you and Tam have found each other. It makes me believe there is some good left in the world.