I was shuffling through my iPod the other day when Brad Paisley's Letter to Me came on. I thought to myself, "Why the hell did I ever download this song?" and quickly pushed 'next', only for Baz Luhrman's Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) to blast into the air around me.
I glanced about, hoping that no one would overhear my awful picks. You see, I tend to listen to my music very loud, ergo anyone within a 30 foot radius can usually decipher the lyrics flowing through my earbuds. I judge people quite harshly by their musical choices, for instance, right now I'm sitting in a parking lot, penning this to the soulful rhythm of Purple Rain. Who in their right mind would diss Purple Rain? ... What, no love for Prince? Hark, what blasphemy! It's a fantastic song, and you know it... But I digress. The fact that I followed a so-so country jam with an even stranger non-song was unforgivable. What next, Nickelback? Hah, just kidding. I'd shoot myself. Seriously.
Anyways, for some reason I kept listening to the Sunscreen song. I've always liked the one line: "Don't worry about the future ... ... The real troubles in your life are apt to be the things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindsides you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday." Kind of morbid, I'll admit, but I love the imagery. I can see myself sitting in my car on an idle Tuesday, the clock striking 4 as a semi careens my way... and suddenly I'm HIT!!#@*&$... with the realization that I should probably be at work, or something.
It didn't take but a moment to understand how serendipitous it was that these two songs played back-to-back. Obviously, Jesus (or Steve Jobs, whatevs) wanted me to blog a little old 'letter to me'.
I decided to write this letter to a 5 year old me, because not only was I a gifted reader with one hell of a vocabulary at that age, but also, I'm pretty sure age 5 is right when I started to fuck everything up. So here we go...
Dear Liz,
First of all, your name is Elizabeth. I know, it's long, and your hasty 8 year old self will want to shorten it to something that can be scribbled in an instant... but you will rue the day (rue, I tell you!) that you choose to go by 'Liz'. It's obnoxious, and too short and it's a bit onomatopoeia-ish. And to be honest, everyone's going to call you Booze, anyway. It's a long story. I'll explain later.
Speaking of days you will 'rue', one blissful 5th grade afternoon, you'll be accosted by a boy named Jevon. He'll be the one throwing water at you. You'll forgive him this, almost immediately- because you'll think him kind of cute. This is all an act- a trick of the light, I say! RUN. Run away from him, and never look back. If you don't cut him out of your life right then and there, he'll torture you for long as you both shall live...
Just to further illustrate how imperative it is to your sanity that you avoid and ignore him, let us take a stroll down memory lane... At age 16, after you see the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with all of your friends, you'll go home, so glad that you're not one of those silly girls who gets scared by silly movies. Cue Jevon, who will be waiting outside your bedroom window, revving a circular saw. He's also the one who dresses as a clown not once, but twice, all for your 'benefit'. You're afraid of clowns, but, by now, you already know this. His shenanigans will only cement your stance. Senior year he'll tell your government teacher that you have a knife in your backpack, which by then will be quite an offense... but you'll be granted clemency due to the fact that his only proof was an AIM account he purported as yours with the moniker 'knifeinmypack', and a hand-drawn picture of a cleaver that he stuffed in your bag. Once you've enrolled at WSU, he'll already have told all his friends (he has, surprisingly, many) that you're a heroin addict (you are not) who's had 9 abortions (of which you've had none)... And one time, he'll push you and you'll trip and go flying into a wall, bounce off a fire extinguisher and land on your ass. He'll laugh at this.
Speaking of which, you're unbalanced. Not in like, a schizo way, but more in the way that you fall down a lot. Realize this, and move on. Don't go rollerblading, snowboarding, skateboarding, or walking down B Street. This will save you a dislocated shoulder, bruised hip, bruised ego, the knees of two different pairs of jeans, a pair of aviator sunglasses, your left ankle and your sanity.
Regardless of your vigilance, you will never use the words 'supper' or 'soda' in normal conversation, and you aren't really ambidextrous. Why must you try to be so strange? The oboe? Really?! Get over yourself, kid. You're going to be weird enough without going out of your way to do so. Also, you pronounce 'crayon' wrong. Seriously. It's not 'cran'- it's 'cray-on'. People will make fun of you for this. And while I'm clearing up some egregious errors in your thought processes and pronunciations, I might as well mention these: islands are not floating pieces of land, hearts aren't shaped like hearts, and the lyrics are, "Don't go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you used to", not, "Don't go Jason waterfalls, blistex to the rivers and the lakes that you used to"...
Enough with the overalls. After age two, they cease to be precious and turn into pathetic.
Sometime in early grade school (between 1st and 2nd grade, to be sort-of exact), a freckle will appear on your lip. It's not pen, regardless of how many misguided, nosy strangers (and Grandma!) try to tell you to wipe it off your face. Even after you assure them that it's not pen, that it's permanent, they'll still stare at you, an air of doubt in their gaze... Get used to this. It happens once a week.
Lots of girls are impetuous, unreasonable and a bit creepy- and you are one of them even though you consider yourself to be sooooo balanced and normal and cool. You're not. Sorry.
Try to write a book about vampires that's actually good before 2005- because after that they become sparkly, thus making the entire genre worthless. Also, invest in Apple or something. Oh, and Y2K? Total BS. I'll let you know about this 2012 nonsense... or maybe I won't :/
Really, little Elizabeth... how many Beanie Babies does one actually need?
There will be a time in your adolescence that you decide to throw a party at your parent's house. FYI, someone leaves a Smirnoff Ice in the microwave... Your friends are cool. And just so you know... your friend Nick's going to tell your cousin Chris about the party, who's going to tell your aunt Elinor who's going to tell your mom. You don't get into trouble though, so chill out. Have a drink, or eight... you were a real bitch that night.
On that same note... you keep thinking vodka is your friend. IT DOES NOT LIKE YOU.
Relax about the little things, because chances are, they don't really matter anyway. Pay attention in class, and quit scribbling all over your notebooks, you're wasting paper. Be nicer to people because as the years go by you'll feel bad that you weren't.
Unfortunate things will happen. People will disappoint you. And you're going to disappoint yourself, more times than I'd like to admit- but that's kind of what life's about. You try things out, you make mistakes, you (hopefully) learn from them, and you get up and do it all over again. Sooner or later you'll come to the realization that the past is the past, the future may or may not be completely fucked- but life goes on. Just live. Just breathe. Have fun and be sincere and most of all, be present. From what I can tell you'll have good days and bad, but they're two sides of the same coin, you can't have one without the other. And maybe the odds are stacked in your favor, because so far, life's been pretty damn good.
Just do your best, so you can look back with no regrets, proud of what you've accomplished and without all those obnoxious, nagging, "what if" scenarios.
You've got one shot at this.
Be good.
Sincerely,
Booze
No comments:
Post a Comment