Sweet 16 and…

Daily Prompt:  Only Sixteen
Tell us all about the person you were when you were sixteen. If you haven’t yet hit sixteen, tell us about the person you want to be at sixteen.

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As my 16th birthday approached I had a secret. It was mine and mine alone. I didn’t share it with my best friend or my sister – my two closest confidants. My secret was one of passage, ‘the first kiss’ and it happened only weeks before my 16th birthday. I would celebrate that birthday with a quiet smile as uncles and aunts teased me about being “sweet 16 and never been kissed”.

Other than having crossed the threshold of the first kiss, I was innocent and very ignorant of what it meant to be ‘in love’, something which my teenaged heart and mind daydreamed about night and day, along with my girlfriends.

Television, unfortunately, was my source for learning about relationships, especially about love and marriage since my parent’s relationship was frigid; there was nothing to learn from them other than how to live together in cold silence. This was unfortunate because life and love in movies or television was nowhere near accurately portrayed and a sorry substitute for learning affection.

My after-school job was being the desk clerk at my family’s music school three nights a week, this would be my second year earning money to afford sewing materials and patterns to make my own school clothes. After a bitter disagreement with my mother about fashion, when we shopped for clothes my freshman year, she gave up on me, told me I could make my own clothes from then on and that is what I did. It turned out to be a good thing too. Learning to sew allowed me to make extra-special Halloween costumes for my children, later in life. I also sewed my own homecoming, prom and wedding gowns.

Twiggy

Typically, by nature, I am lamb-like, very accommodating and non-argumentative except in the case of my high school wardrobe. I confess, I became teen-zilla. I think that was and still is the norm for teen girls, especially, in my case, after eight years of wearing a uniform at a Catholic school. In high school, I could “wear” my identity through my outfits and make-up.

One of the most special gifts of my life was given to me on my 16th birthday, a silver charm bracelet. Forty-four years later, I still have that charm bracelet and each charm sparks memories of milestones in my life. I so much prefer the old-style charm bracelets rather than the newer Pandora® style bracelets, to my mind, more individuality is achieved in the older style bracelets.

© Cancer Is Not Pink
Swoosieque

This September, I will be celebrating my 16th birthday again, well, kind of, in a special way… I’ll be 61, which, transposed is 16. Might it be possible to ‘transpose’ that first kiss from so many years ago and re-live the excitement once again?

I dunno, but, trying will certainly be fun!

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