As I said during my last blog post, I've been lacking inspiration and motivation for writing lately. Today, however, I have this urge to write, yet I had no subject. Thanks to www.creativewritingprompts.com, I found an appealing topic. Number 21 suggested writing a letter to the 10-year-old child you had been. For the sake of time, and so I don't overcook the lasagna baking in the oven, I have decided to make a top ten list instead. First a little background about my 10-year-old self. It was the year of Dorothy Hamill haircuts, Space Invaders, soaring oil prices, Jim Jones' cool-aid and Grease. Like most 10-year olds, I was becoming more aware of the world and the culture around me. So yes, I had the Dorothy Hamill haircut, which rendered my hair more like that of Diana Ross' afro of the 70s. Truly I looked like I had been whacked by the ugly stick. But that didn't stop me from acting like Olivia-Newton John from time to time. I had the Grease soundtrack and spent many a day dancing and singing to "You're the One that I Want" in the privacy of my pink-shag carpeted bedroom.
I idolized Jaclyn Smith in Charlie's Angels, while my brothers clearly worshipped Farrah Fawcett by the looks of the poster hanging in their rooms. I longed to fall in love like the characters on the Love Boat, and I laughed at the clumsy antics of John Ritter on Three's Company. For Halloween, my mom made me the most fabulous Laura Ingalls costume so I could pretend I was Half-pint running through the prairie. Too bad the Dorothy Hamill haircut didn't grow out in time for braids like I had worn the year before.
I was growing up, caught between being a little girl and an adolescent. I thought I knew so much about life when, in fact, my life had barely started. It's a good thing we dont' know what's coming down the pike when we are 10-year-olds. And if someone had handed me this top ten list, I probably wouldn't have understood it anyway. But for what it's worth, I thought it might be fun to write that little girl I once was.
Here's the list, in no particular order:
1. Play. Play. Play. And play some more. The serious stuff of life will come soon enough.
2. Don't shut down your imagination. Continue to dream and pretend. As you explore your imagination, the world unfolds to endless opportunities and experiences.
3. Focus on your internal beauty over your external beauty. When you focus on what's inside you will feel beautiful and confident, which makes you actually LOOK more beautiful on the outside.
4. Treat your friends how you want to be treated.
5. What other people say about you does not define you. If someone calls you a shoe, that does not mean you are a shoe anymore than someone calling you stupid means you are stupid.
6. Your can't choose your family, but you can learn to accept them for who they are.
7. Your worth is not tied to how much money your father makes, how pretty you are or what skills you have. Your worth is in the simple idea that you are God's child and He loves you more than you will ever comprehend.
8. You WILL not die by going through junior high school.
9. Your parents are not perfect. Nor are they stupid. They are human beings trying to do their best in providing and loving you.
10. Life has more challenges than you can imagine. Life also has more joy than you can imagine. Learn to ask God for help with the challenges and to thank him for the many gifts you will receive. Communicating with Him will help you understand you are never alone.