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Monday, April 5, 2010

Birthday Advice

A colleague of mine has a cool idea for her sixteen year old daughter's birthday present.  She emailed all the women in her daughter's life and asked them to give advice for her girl.  She creating a book with the advice in it.  I've been wracking my brain trying to decide what advice to give this delightful child; I'm hoping that blogging about it will help me flesh out some ideas.

When I met her, G was seven years old; I can't believe that she's going to be sixteen.  Her mother always tells me to treat her children (G, her sister B and brother T) like they are mine and I've watched them run tame in the high school where we teach for nine years.  G's matured from a sweet little girl to beautiful, talented, socially aware young woman.

I wish all sixteen year old girls were as blessed as G and the advice that I want to share with her is the same advice that I wish I could share with all teenage girls.

Shakespeare had it right--To thine own self be true.  Too many times teens, especially teen girls, allow the wants and needs of others to dictate their choices.  The desire to fit in and be popular leads many teens to make choices that just are not who they are.  I hope that G and all teens remain true to themselves.

Over the year's I've also watched countless girls compromise who they are to keep a boy--many times a boy not worthy of them.    I wish they all knew that they do  not have to have a boyfriend to be complete.  And that boy who makes them feel like they are too skinny, too fat, too plain, too stupid, etc, needs to be kicked to the curb.  They're like buses--another one will be a long.  You just have to be patient enough to wait.

Do what gives you joy.  Life is too short to be miserable in your life.

But unfortunately, sometimes you have to do things that you do not like. 
Go to funerals. 
Keep your doctor's appointments. 
Exercise. 
Wear sunscreen. 
Do your homework.
Floss.

Always behave in a manner that makes your mother proud...you never know where her friends are;)

Hmmm, this helped.  I had hoped that blogging about it would give me ideas---and it did.

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