Saturday, February 6, 2010

Love Letter to Myself at Age Eleven



Dear Me at Age Eleven,

I love you. I think it's really, really important for me to tell you this because I know that right now you don't think anyone loves you. You are wrong, although it will be quite some time before you realize this.

Yes, you. That awkward girl who's all limbs and no substance, that girl who thinks she's weak and stupid and powerless and ugly. You. I love you. You are loveable. People in your life will meet you and know you and love you, just the way you are. Believe it.

Don't shake your head at me, Missy. Love will happen to you. I know it sounds nuts, but have faith.

I see you there, trembling in front of your neighbor's house. You are worried because the girl who lives there is often cruel to you and yet has offered to walk you to your first day of 5th grade. You have good instincts. Please start listening to them a little harder, because you know that girl is twisted and ugly inside. You can feel it and you have seen it but you will ignore it for a while. You will pretend that she's your friend because you desperately want it to be so. You will suffer for ignoring your instincts. Listen to yourself, even when you think you have nothing to say.

You do have things to say. You are not stupid. True, you are not brilliant at math but the teacher who called you dim last year was old and mean. You will listen so much to the things mean people have to say. If I could turn off your ears for the next few years I would, but since I can't, I just want to tell you that I love your mind. It is often dark and far too critical of you, but that mind is also creative and empathetic and capable of some pretty neat tricks. Believe Mama when she says you have a good brain.

See all that skin you've got? Thicken it. You will bear so much these next few years, but junior high is coming up and honey? You ain't even seen cruelty yet. That skin is like paper, so we have work to do. Do me a favor? Instead of worrying about that stray zit that might pop up on that skin, work on making it hard as adamant.

And as for strong. There's something strong in you that you don't even know you have. Probably because you can't see it and so much right now depends on appearances. It's beating in your chest, Hummingbird, and it's so tough that it's going to amaze you. I love your tough heart--you need a tough one--because people are going to break it sometimes. People you love desperately are not going to love you back, no matter how hard you try. Wishes you make are not going to come true; some of them will, but some whoppers coming up are just gonna whiz right past you, leaving you broken for a while. Friends who promise to love you forever, won't. But that heart, it's got grit. Don't doubt it. It will carry you through.

Okay, I'm done with the hard stuff. But I needed you to know that someone loves you and is watching over you. You feel alone, but you aren't. You just don't have the tools to dig down deep in the mineshaft; you will, though. And there's some treasures waiting for you, if you just have the courage to keep on keepin' on.

Love (and you'd better believe it),
Your 40-year-old-self

ps: Now that the big stuff is covered, can I mention a few little details?
~Quit trying to feather the hair. It will never work for you.
~Powder-blue suede vest and skirt? Kick Mama for that one.
~Yes, you will be forced to be Herbie Schroeder's square dance partner again in gym this year. And the next. But then it will be over and Herbie's four year Reign of Terror shall cease. It's the price you pay for those gazelle legs. Which you are totally gonna love later, promise.
~And as long as we're on the subject, don't worry about boys. They aren't even going to notice you until you are 20, and won't ask for any pound of flesh until you are 22. Yeah. Seriously. You will be left alone that long. So tell Daddy to chill.

xoxo

***This is part of Love It Up at the awesomeness that is Momalom. Visit them soon!

52 comments:

  1. Novel Schnovel You are such a great writer! I have often wished that I could impart the wisdom I have earned on my pre-teen self. Sadly, I have the feeling that my kids will ignore mine like I did my parents but I keep on trying.

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  2. This is beautiful...don't you wish we could have gone back and reassured ourselves before we went through all the crap we did? I absolutely love this! Great job!

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  3. Lovely, lovely. What a great idea. And I love this eleven year old too, with gee shy beauty - how marvelous to write to your younger self.

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  4. Oh to be able to really talk to our 11 year-old selves. The things I would say... Beautifully written as usual!

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  5. Yes, don't you wish we could tell ourselves at eleven, (and the teen years), what we really needed to hear! Wonderful job doing it!

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  6. The things we wish we could go back and tell ourselves! But you know what? We all have to learn on our own. It's discouraging, but, in case you've forgotten, we didn't listen to anyone back then. Thought we knew it all. (I'm saying this because I have a granddaughter who is making some mistakes in her life right now, but looks at the rest of us when we try to help her as though we are from outer space, as she rolls her eyes back in her head.) And I hate to say it, but I faced the same problems when I was the same age. History repeats itself, no matter the era.

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  7. This is so amazing! Hugs to your darling 11-yr-old self. And to your current self.

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  8. Awwww this is so sweet (and totally a post that I started for the same meme!) Hugs to you and the 11yr old. trapped within.

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  9. So first of all, you were a beautiful child....and second of all you are a beautiful human.

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  10. Boy, I hated being 11 years old, too. Braces on my teeth and coke-bottle glasses just did me in.

    I don't think your outfit looks so
    bad. Lots of kids wore really weird things back then.

    And yes, trusting your own instinct and getting thicker skin are totally important, even in old age...not that you're there yet!

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  11. Isn't it heartbreaking that such a beautiful, smart girl will waste so many years on the cruelty of others? I don't know how to prepare mine to bear it, because we all know it will come. My consolation is that one day she will hold her too-young self in her heart, and finally know she was loved.

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  12. Oh, I love this idea! Don't you wish we could actually use that advice? I could have used some back then...

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  13. Wow, that made me have tears. Very nice and its a love letter that expresses the things we all need to at some point. :-)

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  14. I know where Miss Chicken Legs got her chicken legs, which go great with strappy sandals!

    My 11 year old self would totes share my Whitney Houston tape, rainbow Trapper Keeper, *and* curling iron with you.
    jc

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  15. Kitch, I love this in every single itty bitty way. I think that this should be an assignment for all of us. In fact, I have so many thoughts flowing through my head that I'm sure I will steal this idea eventually and write a similar letter.

    The little 11-year-old version didn't know what was coming. I'm not sure I should warn her or just tell her everything will be alright in the end.

    Soul sista, I think we could have been friends even at 11.

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  16. I bet many of us can relate. (Um, except for maybe the gazelle legs part.)

    Beautiful, TKW.

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  17. I'm totally going to steal the idea only I may or may not post it. I am however going to do it. I think it would be a wonderful and healing experience. For anyone, man or woman no matter what age. We all have an "inner child" maybe it's time to write and say hi to her!

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  18. TKW, you're a genius! Next Momalom challenge: write a love letter to your child or teen self!
    From Herbie Schroeder to a body part that you just had to grow into, yes, we can all relate.
    You know you're a great writer when you make everyone else just put down their pens!

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  19. If only... right?! But you know what this makes me want to do? It makes me want to write a letter to my as yet to be 11 year old daughter with all of this wisdom in it so she can have it and save it and read it at night with a flashlight when someone has been mean to her and she is too embarrassed/afraid/ashamed to talk about it with anyone and she needs to know that it will end and that it will all be ok and that she isn't alone because we all went through it.

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  20. I had the same awkward feeling of myself as a kid. Braces, glasses, built like a 2 x 4. Yeah, wow I was ugly. Wish I could have met you when I was a kid, I think we'd have gotten along well. Hugs to both incarnations of you, you rock! :)

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  21. I just adore this. The honesty... so much of what you said I would have loved to hear as a younger self (but who am I kidding, I probably would have rolled my eyes as far back as they could have gone and sighed that annoyed teenage sigh!)

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  22. Aw, sweets. I'm all welled-up over here. If your 11-year-old self buys it, will you tell her to talk to my 11-year-old self?

    Also, to both your selves: I'm working my way through your archives and finally seeing more pictures of you and Mr. TKW (the ones from Greece) and I'm a little appalled at how hot you both are. I suspect you may both be aliens. Tall, perfect-skinned aliens.

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  23. Kitch, this is just perfect.

    My older son is only two and already I cry in anticipation of the days of his early adolescence. If only we parents could convey these same messages to every 11-year old everywhere. If only they would believe us.

    Sarah & Jen, can I vote for this entry as the winner of the Love It Up challenge? I love, love, love it. Up.

    xoxo

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  24. Love you, TKW. This post was beautiful.

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  25. so moving. going to print and file for my kids when they are eleven. cuz everyone should hear this---especially about ignoring the zit and toughening the skin. adolescence is so hard.

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  26. Truly beautiful. I just had my 12 yr old read it aloud to me. Thank you.
    xo
    ~Annica

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  27. What a beautiful letter to a beautiful child. Add a PS to it. Tell her she has GREAT HAIR!!!

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  28. That is too precious. You were a good writer even at a young age. Great old photo also.

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  29. Nice! I would have loved to have a little talk with myself at that age too. Life can be so rough and the scars never completely heal.

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  30. Wouldn't it be great if when we were eleven we had had someone talking to us like this? Someone from our future who could ease our mind of the pain that it was feeling? Oh, how I could have used it back then.
    This was such a great post. Great Great.

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  31. It's amazing what we know now that we wish we could have taught our younger selves. Sweet, poignant letter, TKW.

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  32. You know, I've been walking around all weekend like a total weepy dork, just thinking about all the stuff I want to tell my girls when they are raw and vulnerable...

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  33. Your so brave.......and have great pins!

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  34. This was beautiful. Looking forward to letters to your 16 year old self, 20, 40....

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  35. Fantastic! I love this and the letter to your 40 year old body at Momalom.

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  36. Skin is always so thin looking back isn't it?!

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  37. ohhhh....you look so sweet in that photograph...and you know what? Your words are useful to all of us...growing up is so hard and people are so mean...you can only try your best and learn from your mistakes...wouldn't it be lovely to have a wiser/more experienced head on your shoulders at 11...but...you've got to get that experience from somewhere...at least as a mom you can now help your daughters where possible...ah! Life can be so hard... xxx

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  38. I love this! It makes me want to write a letter to my younger self...age 6, age 10, age 15...on and on. Thank you for this unique perspective.

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  39. This was actually really hard for me to read. Partly because I understand it so well because of my own 11 year old pains. And partly because I knew you not too long after this, and I never knew how much pain you were in. I loved you, but I didn't actually KNOW you. I feel like I could have been a better friend, because I thought you were a.) fabulous, b.) gorgeous and c.) very funny. Oh, and d.) I thought you were extremely popular.

    Now I know you were a.) brilliant. b.) tortured, c.) very funny and d.) very, very brave.

    So glad to be getting to know you better now. What a great, powerful letter. Good Work TKW.

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  40. Of course you are always gorgeous, in my memory, and in person as well!

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  41. OH, Kitch. My heart ached as I read this. I think so many of use can relate. 11 years old was one of the hardest years of my life. It was awkward that the kids were mean. Oh, and the friend search. I didn't find my long lasting friends until I came to college.

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  42. I love this so much that it made me want to write a letter for my daughter when she's eleven. But then I realized that I really just want to plagiarize your letter.

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  43. Your 11 year old self is adorable, even though she didn't feel like it at the time. Isn't it weird to think back on then, and how you wouldn't have believed the things you'd experience later? I wish we could all just fast forward through those awkward adolescent years!

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  44. BloginSong,

    Awwww, sweetie, you have always been a great friend. An inspiration. The girl who cannot be anything but herself, despite the shit she might get for it. A girl that will not be kept down.

    And wonderful, beautiful, big-hearted readers, I'm going to tell you to write that letter. Do it. It's amazing what you are going to dredge up. It stings, but it's good for you. I'd love to see your letters, if and when you choose to write them.

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  45. Oh, a love letter to myself as a kid! Why didn't I think of that? Brilliant. I have so much to say to her/me. I look back and realize I knew myself better back then than when I hit my twenties. It took me almost a decade to remember who I used to be: the loud, blunt, sweet girl who liked the bad boys and wanted to write and be something big in life.

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  46. Kitchiekitch. This is so. So. So. What? It's just real. It's so touching. It hits so close to home. It makes me think about myself at age 11. I think I have the same picture of myself, actually. I think we maybe have the same legs. Although there was no Herbie. His name was Mike. Mike. Mike. They were all Mikes for a while. But that was a lot of wasted worrying...
    I digress.
    I love this idea. And the way you've pulled it off.
    Thank you. I didn't think I had the energy to think tonight. Alas. You've got me percolating.

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  47. TKW, I wish someone had said these things to me. I wish someone had cared enough and been brave enough to say them. Your girls are lucky.

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  48. Kitch,
    this is BRILLIANT. I feel like I should read it to my daughter, because she needs to hear it, too. And Lord knows she doesn't believe anything I tell her!

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  49. Tell your daughters all of this. They will blow you off. They will tell you that you don't know how they feel. They will tell you that you are SO OLD that you couldn't possibly remember what it was like to be in their shoes. And a lot of what you say won't stick. But some of it will. And oh how they will thank you when they realize how hard you worked to get even a kernel of this vast truth into their fickle little heads.

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  50. Awwwwwwwwwww. xokristen

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