**BoomersGirl Designs**


Kit: Friendship Blossoms


 


Journaling:

Dear 15-year-old Self,

I received your letter and wanted to send you this response until we can meet up in 37 years.

I know you feel weird right now.

I know you feel like no one wants to be your friend because your mom is a teacher. I know it hurts when you try to dress in the styles you see on TV and people at school make jokes about it. I know it hurts when people look at you and your one really good friend and assume you are "more than friends." I know it's lonely liking all the sci-fi shows that you like and being the only one to be interested in them. I know it's tough to be interested in your favorite actors and have that interest labeled as a waste of time and money. 

Hang on. It's going to get better...REALLY soon.

Next year a new teacher will show up and a drama class will be started. And you'll find your niche with the theater nerds when you're cast in the fall musical.

In a few years, you'll go to college, where no one knows your parents or your friends and you're judged simply on who YOU are. And in college, everyone wears what they want and it's all accepted.

Soon you'll become a Christian and meet your husband, both of which will give you a "chosen family" that will last for years and years. 

Best of all, about 15 years in your future, the computer will become common, and suddenly you'll be able to find people who enjoy the same things you enjoy, no matter what that is. If you feel like a weirdo now because you enjoy sci-fi, just wait until you connect with a wonderful world of people who not only enjoy watching those same things, but playing games about them, and spending time making costumes and dressing like the characters. And here you'll find another family. 

You will be called a geek, and you will be proud of that title. 

You will meet people and take part in activities when fan conventions begin to grow and become a thing. Because of this, the actors you follow will become not only faces on a screen, but people you meet and, in one wonderful case that lasts nearly 10 years, someone you work with directly.

The people you get to know online will come to respect you for your wisdom, and seek you out for your compassion. You will be able to brighten their days. You will become known as a mediator and group leader.

Yes, my awkward, geeky, out-of-step self, it's going to get better. SO much better. Just be patient.

With Love,
52-year-old Me