Letters - seemed like hundreds of them from the girls and even some boys from boarding school. Reading them now feels strange because after I left boarding school at 15, I've never been back once and have avoided meeting any of them if I could help it. If you've remember this post, you know why. The letters are full of who's crushing on whom, who's been dumped and how, what did X see in Y and generally the kind of important correspondence that teenagers share. To be fair, they wrote to me a lot. I just didn't want to look back. Reading all of that, do I regret not making more of an effort? I'm quite ashamed to say not really.
Greeting cards - birthday cards, miss you cards, friendship cards, good luck cards, you name it. It seems like the children of the 90's single handedly kept Hallmark and Archies in business. Remember those ridiculous Ann Geddes baby posters? Everyone loved them. Personally I thought they were very creepy.
Keepsakes and knick knacks - oh God! the stuff i have and i cant believe its still around. Chocolate wrappers with notes written on the back, chocolate wrapper without notes, movie tickets, transcripts of incredibly detailed conversations that were carried out in writing so the teacher wouldn't catch us talking in class.
Bits of fluff to mark some epic moment, which for the life of me I cant recall now. Scraps of paper no bigger than my thumb saying "senti-val, love R'. That's 'sentiment value' for all you ignorants out there (scoff, scoff).
Rocks - Yes that's right. I saved rocks. Maybe should have paid more attention to the ones in my head. Hmph. Ridiculous.
Love letters from old boyfriends. And incredibly bad love poetry. Odes to my eyes and to my smile. Here's a sample -
You ask me why I love you,
As if it wasn't true,
So here's a couple of reasons,
To show you that I do
It goes on about my eyes and my smile blah blah and then ends like this
I love the way you care for me,
No matter whatever for,
But most of all I love the way I love you even more.
Sigh. Those were the days.
Though I suspect he copied it from somewhere. Bless his heart, but he wasn't exactly...he wasn't very....Let's just say if you knew him, you'd have genuine cause to doubt that he could have come up with something like this all by himself.
And my journals! This is the time period during 1999 - 2004. I was a messed up kid.
About parents - lets just say, it was like trying to play hop scotch in a minefield. South Indian girl from well educated family did not want to be an engineer. 'Nuff said.
About future plans - Getting rich, being famous, showing the parents they were WRONG.Basically the usual.
About academics - I've said this before and I'll say it again. I've been to about 11 schools and I do not want to go back or even think about any of them. School was trauma - all of them and my high school papers were not even worth wiping your butt with. So glad that's over
About friends - Loved them, fought with them, disliked them sometimes, but they were my life. I'm glad to say nothing has changed
About luurrrveee - excruciating details about every boy I had a crush on. My friend G and I crushed on a minimum of two boys a week. Mostly they were subjects of the detailed written conversations mentioned above. When things were reciprocated, then it was about what I said, and then he replied to which i said......Then he said, and I flirted back and he touched my arm and then...Phew! Exhausting. How did I have the energy for all that. And Oh! the analysis of the boys. Its a wonder my brain didn't explode. I was in fits of laughter to read my 17 year old self spouting wisdom on 'emotional maturity'. I'm laughing now, but it was all very serious business back then. I kind of understood why adults don't take teenage relationships so seriously. But the tragedy is that the highs and lows and excitement and disappointments are very real and when parents, who have the advantage of life with them, get dismissive its a real source of tension.
A very wise friend told me (I think we were 17/18) that at any particular time and instance everyone's problems and issues are very real to them. Being dismissive is just disrespectful to that person. Just because you don't think its a problem doesn't mean they have to agree with you. I hope I remember that when I have kids of my own.
Speaking of love, one entry reminded me that when when one of the exes and I broke up, and I didn't go hysterical on him, he said "This is the best break up evah". Hmph! So much for maintaining my dignity. My 19 year old self was shattered. I wanted to go hug her and tell her that in under two years you're going to meet The One who you'll spend the rest of your life with and you've had a very lucky escape with this one.
Bad poetry - not as awful as rhyming dove with love. But close. Too close.
1 copy of the Kamasutra from my friends on my 18th birthday. I suppose they felt 'better prepared than caught unaware'. By the way the Kamasutra is nothing like what I thought it would be. Most parts of it are quite tame. I was almost disappointed!
1 copy of the Penthouse Letters (look it up! but please don't do that at work, or in a library) and some other A rated novel which I filched from none other than my Aunt's discarded books in my grandmothers house.
It was such a different time, where the littlest things were the biggest problems and real big problems didn't exist at all. The world was at our feet and we were the Rulers of the Universe. It was a long time ago.
1 comments:
Sounds so familiar..the letters..the cards..the poetry...school..friends et al!
Even not wanting to go back to school :)
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