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Kool-Aid on The Rocks
When I was a kid, my mom wasn’t a fan of Kool-Aid. She thought it was nothing but sugar and dye, a shortcut to bad teeth and hyper kids. If we asked for something sweet, she’d say, “There’s always water,” like it was the treat of the century. Every once in a while, though, a few packets of Kool-Aid would sneak into the cupboard, and that felt like rebellion in powder form.I didn’t really fall for Kool-Aid until my mid-teens. Spencer, my boyfriend back then, and I would whip up a pitcher of cherry Kool-Aid and make grilled cheese sandwiches. We’d pour our bright red drinks into glasses, carry everything out to the picnic table in the backyard, and giggle like we were getting away with something.
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Truthful? Not My Ashtray!
I found being truthful as an early teenager was a real challenge. This was for me a time for experimentation, and most often frowned on by my parents. My particular group of classmates seemed to feel they should act a lot older than they really were. A lot of us had older siblings, which may or may not have contributed to this thought process.One such occasion that comes to my mind is this: I smoked.
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Teasing Teenagers
Picture this… I’m 14 years old. It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m having a date night with my boyfriend, Sam. Lisa and Tom are in the next room chaperoning us (as much as you can chaperone from the other room). Sam and I are kissing and before I know it, his hand is creeping under my shirt… -
To Know Me is to Love Me
Anyone who says being a kid or much less a teenager is fun has never been one. Well, my remembrance of being a teenager sort of makes me shudder. I was one of those kids that most parents would, at times, never want. I was rebellious, didn’t like the word “no”, hated restrictions, and liked to do anything at least once to see if it was worth doing again. -
Shy and Unhappy Teenager
I remember being very excited about becoming a teenager but for the life of me, I didn’t know why.My first memory of my teenage years was standing on the front steps of the Junior High waiting for the doors to open. It was the first day of 7th grade. I had grown four inches over the summer. I towered over most of my classmates that I remembered from 6th grade.
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Not Yet a Grown-Up
This is the worst topic. Why? Because it exposes how scary this time is in anyone’s life. And right now, my daughter Aubrey is in the middle of her thirteenth year. There are six more years of her teenagehood ahead of us. I remember the struggle of that age and how confused I was about my place in the world. For me, it was a time of questioning, trying out different personas, and worrying about the future.