3 S.R. Johannes: Life lessons to a younger me

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Life lessons to a younger me

Dear younger Shelli,

I'm here to tell you that life turns out better than you ever expected. And I have a few pieces of advice that will make your life a lot easier.

Here are a few tips:
  1. Remember the business class you took over creative writing....big mistake. Dangling modifiers will mean more to you than ROIs.
  2. The typing class that you slacked off in...trust me... typing from Home Row is critical to your future. Remember two words - The Claw!
  3. All beautiful kids who are mean to you in high school...tell them not to be so cocky. Our 20th reunion will reveal all.
  4. When you get in trouble for your messy handwriting...it doesn't matter. Computers take over and you'll never have to "write freehand" again.
  5. The cute guy you start dating in college. Dump him! He will break your heart. Oh yeah, and he loses all his hair too.
  6. The soap opera you skip class for because you're afraid you might miss an episode? Let me just tell you that Days of our Lives is still on and you wont miss a thing. Bo and Hope are still together and Stefano is still crazy.
  7. For all the times you have to decide between cheering and chorus? Don't worry, a show called "Glee" makes singing and dancing cool again.
  8. The reason you love to read so much....is because one day you will be a writer. Keep reading!
  9. Write down everything and keep all your journals. Some day they will be considered priceless "research".
  10. It's not so bad taking your drivers exam in a 1984 van. When you move to the city, parallel parking will be a breeze!
  11. Don't get too excited about mastering Atari and flipping PacMan or Space Invaders. It gets much harder on Xbox.
  12. Your parents love you and mean well...and most of the time - they are right. Except when they tell you to go for the money.
  13. Your little brother won't always annoy you. Someday you'll forgive each other for the countless wedgies and be the best of friends.
  14. Friends will come and go. Don't worry, the ones you need will be the ones you keep. The ones you lose end up being crazy anyway.
  15. All those fashion faux pas you make - macrame tops, parachute pants, and Indian moccasins? They will probably all come back in style in some form anyway. (oh yeah and someday, thick glasses will be cool!)
  16. Whatever you do - do NOT perm your naturally curly hair or spray Sun-In at the beach, you will pay dearly.
  17. All I can say is - blue eye shadow and pink lipstick are not your best colors!
  18. All the mistakes you make don't matter in the long run. Including getting kicked off the cheerleading squad and a D in Trigonometry.
  19. All those times you worry about your weight. Let it go. You haven't seen yourself pregnant yet.
  20. Don't worry...you will get a first kiss, you will marry, and you will live happily ever after.
Love always,

Your wiser self!

28 comments:

Vicky Alvear Shecter said...

LOVE this! There's a book in here somewhere...

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Jennifer Hubbard

Shalonda said...

Oh, the things we realize once we're older. That was superb!

Kristi Faith said...

Good letter, great idea on getting some gratification of your current and past life. :) Awesome.

Clementine said...

This reminds me of Brad Paisley's song, Letter to Me! Very cool.

Jessie Oliveros said...

Very funny! And that cute boy I started dating in college. I TOTALLY should have dumped him first, and he was already losing his hair!

Unknown said...

This is darling--especially that last one!

Robert W. Leonard said...

Funny post, some of these really made me laugh! Made my bad mood a little better. Hurray!

Stina said...

This is too funny! I can't believe my typing class in high school actually paid off. :D

Anonymous said...

These really made me smile!

re #15. Save those clothes. Your kids may want them for an "80s" party some day.

JESSJORDAN said...

This is awesome, especially 9 and 12. I should've listened to my parents more ... except when they forced the whole "lawyer is money and money is good" thing. What I wouldn't give to go back in time and take more classes I really enjoyed. And what I REALLY wouldn't give to go back and kick my younger self's ass for throwing away my old diaries because they were sooooo embarrassing. Darn it!

Melissa Hurst said...

Wouldn't it be great if we could really send letters like these to our younger selves?

Tess said...

perspective is everything!

and, all WAS revealed at the HS reunion...so true, so true...

Susan R. Mills said...

I permed my naturally curly hair and used Sun In. Really, really, really bad ideas. :)

Anonymous said...

You went for wisdom; all my letters would have consisted of winning lottery numbers.

All very good advice- do you think your younger self would have listened to it? Or made the same mistakes anyway?

Little Ms J said...

Aww, I like this. Well, said Older Self. Well said.

Jennay and Luke the Pup said...

This is sweet and I agree w/ the comment...save your clothes...they will come back in style or will be wonderful for costumes!!!

Natalie said...

"You haven't seen yourself pregnant yet." Oh, I'm still chuckling. Wouldn't it be nice if we could save our younger selves from all the mistakes we made?

Lauren said...

I love this list. It's also funny to wonder what 20 years from now our even-older-selves we'd say to current selves.

Sun-in is a dangerous product :) Let's just say it caused some orange.

Danyelle L. said...

*grin*

I love this! I wonder what our younger selves would say and how they would react if they were able to get a letter from their future selves. :D

Caroline Starr Rose said...

This reminds me so much of Emily Starr in the LM Montgomery books, who at fourteen writes a letter to her twenty-four-year-old self.

Shelli Cornelison said...

This is great. I think everyone should make this list for themselves.

Sherrie Petersen said...

Love this list, Shelli!

I did #16 and lived to cry about it :)

Unknown said...

That was an awesome post. I really need to tell my younger self some things. Mainly that I should have gotten in more fights as a teenager. Yes, I mean physical brawls. I was always so scared, but I would have been much better off sticking up for myself and punching some faces. It would have done wonders for my self esteem. As much as it hurt to be called names, it hurt worse that I just took all their crap.

jdsanc said...

So True! We must be of the same generation because I've got many of those mistakes/seemed like a good idea at the time things on my list. But I'm showing yours to my daughter.
PS Love the reunion line!

Kimberly Derting said...

Very cool, Shelli! You're pretty smart, aren't ya???

Diana Paz said...

So sweet! Love it :)

Vivian Mahoney said...

This is fantastic! Thanks for a good laugh. Everything you write is sooooo true.