Here at Author2Author, we thought it might be fun to talk about what our teen friends thought we'd be when we grew up. (Or is that "if we grew up"?) Actually, I'm not sure my friends thought I'd do much of anything, nor did they really care. I'm not sure I care too much what my friends today do for a living; it's not really who they are.
What my friends and I cared about much more was WHERE we were going to be when we grew up, which was, to be exact, "the hell out of here." Some of us wanted to retire to Palm Beach at the age of 18, and many of my high school friends moved South, to never deal with snow again.
I think my friends had me pegged as a city girl, living in an overpriced studio apartment in Brooklyn or Boston. And my life almost went that way. But love changes everything, and my husband is a country guy who likes the wide open spaces. So we had to compromise.
Other friends stayed right where we grew up, and sometimes I'm jealous. It must be nice to know the people who own the stores where you shop, and their parents, and the town supervisor, and all the teachers, and most importantly, all the gossip!
But I was restless, and I think my friends saw in me that I wasn't destined to live in one place for too long. Now I've lived in Rochester for like 9 years and it seems like home. Moving around a lot is a pain; you have to get to know everything all over again. But my husband and I still talk about moving. Texas? Atlanta? North Carolina? There's so much to experience.
And that was the big question looming on the minds of most of my teen compadres, rather than what to do for a living. Should I stay or should I go?
What I would tell any teenager thinking about this is, you know, it works out either way. You're not a loser for staying near your family. Your life will be rich and full. But if you leave, you can always come back, or even go somewhere else, and you'll probably be glad you learned about another part of the country.
If all else fails, read Little Women. Beth and Meg were meant to stay home and Jo and Amy were meant to leave. Much of the second half of the book is Jo's angst about it. How would she get out? Once she had gotten out, had she cheated herself by missing Beth's company before her death? But by the end of the novel, her second guessing is over. Whether you stay or go, life works out beautifully either way.
-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages
1 comment:
This is important to remember at ANY age:
"What I would tell any teenager thinking about this is, you know, it works out either way. You're not a loser for staying near your family. Your life will be rich and full. But if you leave, you can always come back, or even go somewhere else, and you'll probably be glad you learned about another part of the country."
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