I’ve always been one to hang on to the past. It’s difficult for me to let go. Move on. Some things have been hanging over my head since middle school. Some things don’t start to bother me until much later. I’ve tried to forget about them …but my brain won’t let go. So, in an effort to ditch these feelings and memories, I’m going to write about them. Document them. These are things I want my children to know: That their mom felt these things when she was 24. Not just when she’s 40 and a parent. (How many kids/teens have said to their parents, “You don’t know what I’m going through! You don’t get it!”? C’mon, we’ve all said that.) This way, they see at age 18, 20, or 24, I felt this way. Maybe it will help them; maybe it’ll help someone else. Either way, I’m going to document these feelings of anger, pain, regret, annoyance and happiness. I am going to scrapbook them.* I have decided to call the ongoing series “Life Lessons”.
Life Lessons are made up of stuff that I’ve done or haven’t done (that I wish I had … or hadn’t). I’ve also decided to include things I’ve observed other people do…or not do. (Not all of these lessons are things I went through myself…so don’t get too shocked.) The rest will be things that annoy me, anger me, sadden me, confuse me, or even make me happy.
This effort is as much for my benefit as it is for helping others. Hopefully, throughout this process, we’ll all take something away from it. My life’s motto: Well. Now we know.
*I may or may not have pictures to add to the scrapbook pages. Not every lesson got photographed.