I Knew Her When

One of the things I hate about going "home" is that I will most assuredly bump into someone who knew me when. While I was basically a good kid and followed most of the rules, I was a teenager. I said stupid things, I did stupid things and, even now, teens of years later, something will tickle my memory and I'll rapidly think, "Don't think about it! Don't think about it!" to try to thwart my subconscious from making itself known to my conscious. And then it does, anyway.

Yep. The teen years. You gotta love 'em. Or maybe not.

Hubs loves to tell the story of the girl who ran against him for Stuco president. She didn't want to run against him. She knew there was no way she'd beat him. In her own words, "Do I look like a glutton for punishment? He's unbeatable. Why would I put myself through the humiliation?"

You guessed it. She was me. And I did run...and lose. And it was humiliating. I didn't even want the stinky position, but I certainly didn't want to lose! Oh, the horror!

But the worst part? Aside from the meltdown. And the stomach cramps. And the speech. It was telling him off in the hallway between classes (after the humiliation of the assembly where he assaulted my character, my ideas and my frizzy hair (that was an inside joke just for him)) only to whip around to storm off (quite dramatically) to find his MOTHER standing right behind me. (I'm not certain whether I actually called him that bad word for a donkey or only thought it.)

Yep. The teen years. They can haunt you.

What I needed was a book like Tricia Goyer's My Life, Unscripted. If you are a teen, have a teen or work with teens, you need to check out this book. Like she says, "You don't have to be the victim of every drama--you can write your own script." It is biblically sound advice, with real life examples, for teens so that they don't depend upon chance to get through the tough teen years--they can script their responses to situations before they are in them.

And hopefully they (you) won't have to chant to yourself, "Don't think about it! Don't think about it!" when they're 32.

Of course, I did get the guy, so I guess it wasn't all bad...