The one thing I would tell to my 16 year old self

"We grow neither better nor worse as we get old, but more like ourselves" - Bernard Baruch

This is me and my best friend when we were 16-ish years old. We met in middle school and continued being friends after that even though we didn't go to the same high school. We loved taking selfies before selfies were a thing, wearing skinny jeans before they were popular, and going to backyard shows. We began experimenting with alcohol and other stuff at a young age. (I remember passing a flask around in middle school in the middle of class while the teacher was lecturing. 🤦‍♀️ ) Looking back now its crazy the things teenagers do sometimes.

At 16 was also when we got our first jobs. Working made it hard for me to stay after school and keep up with being part of class council. It was pretty cool though. I was finally able to buy a cell phone and go out to more shows lol.

By the time I was 16, I was almost never home. My mom worked all day almost everyday so I was "free" to do whatever I wanted. It was on one of those nights that I met my first husband (Emma's dad). Long story short, we started dating when I was 16 and he was 19. We eventually got married when I was 19.

Impulsive thinking

I was living life in the moment and didn’t care about getting in trouble.

In case you don't know, the pre-frontal area of the brain isn't fully developed until approximately the age of 25. This is the area of the brain that helps us with rational thinking and decision making. So it makes sense that we often don‘t think of the consequences when were teenagers. I was living life in the moment and didn’t care about getting in trouble. Im pretty sure we all have things that we regret or are embarrassed about. I recently asked my instagram followers: What is one thing you would tell your 16 year old self?

Some of the answers that I got were: “Stop dating him”, “Leave at 18 and never look back”, and “you are cool”.

Never ending learning

The thing I would tell my 16 year old self is that life is limitless and there is a world to explore outside of South L.A. I would tell myself to create my own path instead of following what is “right” or expected. When I started thinking about this question I realized that i‘m not sure that I would erase certain mistakes I made because mistakes help shape who we are. We learn from our experiences. The cool thing is that learning is never ending. I realized that I’m never going to get to a point where I’m perfect or living a perfect life and that’s ok. What is perfect? Whats important is to be happy in the moment and enjoy life for what it is. It’s ok to be you and live life for yourself.

Constantly Growing

What would you tell your 16 Year old self? Is there anything you would do differently? Let us know. Thanks for reading.