Sixteen just wasn't that perfect
Mar. 3rd, 2010 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreaminghopeWhen my sister and I were little - under ten years old, I think, but we did this for years - we invented a world and two huge families of characters. We talked about our characters, acted them out, drew them, and wrote stories about them. Their stories kept us occupied for hours - days - especially while we were camping, away from our other sources of entertainment. My sister's characters were all siblings; a huge family that all lived in a massive mansion. Mine were a group of friends who were visitors from a planet called Timely (it's a pretty cool place; I still visit there sometimes).
Though we had characters that were little kids, we mostly played teens. The age range was from fourteen to eighteen years old. I remember that the eighteen year olds were the mature characters; they were mostly responsible people who babysat the little kids and took care of the pets. They were kind of boring. The sixteen year olds were our most-played characters; they were the perfect combination of young enough to be fun while seeming old enough to do all the things we were too young to do: dating, going to parties, being independent.
When I got there, sixteen turned out to be a less than ideal age: braces, acne, hormones, bullies, teenaged dramatics, school stress, too young to drink, too old to play Precious Places...
So, sixteen wasn't as perfect as I thought it would be when I was ten. And eighteen wasn't as boring and grown-up as I'd imagined. My ten year old self would consider me to be unthinkably old now - far too old to be fun - but I still feel like I'm just getting started.
Thirty-one is the new sixteen.
Though we had characters that were little kids, we mostly played teens. The age range was from fourteen to eighteen years old. I remember that the eighteen year olds were the mature characters; they were mostly responsible people who babysat the little kids and took care of the pets. They were kind of boring. The sixteen year olds were our most-played characters; they were the perfect combination of young enough to be fun while seeming old enough to do all the things we were too young to do: dating, going to parties, being independent.
When I got there, sixteen turned out to be a less than ideal age: braces, acne, hormones, bullies, teenaged dramatics, school stress, too young to drink, too old to play Precious Places...
So, sixteen wasn't as perfect as I thought it would be when I was ten. And eighteen wasn't as boring and grown-up as I'd imagined. My ten year old self would consider me to be unthinkably old now - far too old to be fun - but I still feel like I'm just getting started.
Thirty-one is the new sixteen.
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Happy Birthday!
Date: 2010-03-04 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-04 08:58 pm (UTC)I thought when I was 11 by the time I was 15 I would just know how to dress and how to put make up on and I would have a boyfriend. So didn't happen like that. I feel like when I'm 30 my age will reflect my personality more. Being a teenager and young twenty something just didn't suit me.
Lisa
x
no subject
Date: 2010-03-05 02:17 am (UTC)