in teacher cadet we had to write a letter to a great-grandchild we'd never live to meet and tell them about ourselves, what we believe in and what our life goals are and what's important to us and what we look for in friends and stuff....if u don't want to read it that's fine, but it's pretty personal and i didn't want to forget that i wrote it so i'm cataloging it here, feel free to read all about my life:
To you,
You don’t know me, and I’ve never met you, but we’re connected; We’re family. You see, I am your great-grandmother Melanie. Now, before you start picturing an old granny in a wicker rocking chair, squinting to read the extra large print on her daily crossword, please know that I’m writing this to you at the young age of 16; It’s actually for a school project. But one day you may actually get to read this, so I’m taking it pretty seriously. I’m sure, by now, people think of the 1900's as ancient history, and of the early 2000's as some era you dress up for on spirit weeks, but to me, that’s now, those are my growing up years. I was born in 1988, and at the moment it’s newly 2005; but I’m sure you don’t really care about dates. In fact, if you’re anything like me you would rather hear what I’m like, and what the times are like, than count up how old I would be if I were still alive. So I’m going to tell you about myself.
Even though I’m only 16, I feel I know a lot about life. I know what’s important to me, and what is superficial. I know how to have fun, with out getting into trouble, and I know how to manipulate my parents into letting me stay out until 11:30 on a weekend, but I don’t know how my life will go, and I don’t know what is going to happen in the future. Right now, the most important things to me are: God, my family, my friends, being happy and being respected. I know it’s kind of a random, odd list but let me tell you why.
God, of course, because, not only is He the creator of the entire universe, but He’s my creator and my friend and He’s a big part of my life. I’ve grown up in church and Sunday school, and I’m an active part of my youth group, and without those things, and those people, I feel that my life would have been completely different, and not as great as it has been. I’m not one of those overly-religious Bible thumpers that argue until they are blue in the face about their faith, I just know that God loves me and that He has a plan for my life. I know that He has a plan for everyone’s life, and although it kills me sometimes, that I have no control over what He does, I know that I still have free will, and if I wanted to screw up my life, I darn well could, but the fact that I haven’t completely done so, thus far, is the reason I continue to live my life for Him. My family is important to me because, well, they’re my family! It’s kind of an interesting relationship, actually. You see, we seem very "Brady Bunch" on the outside, to the public, but if you lived here, you would know, that’s not true. We’re very loving, and we’re very happy, but there seems to always be this underlying tension, caused by years of never saying what we mean, or talking about what’s really going on in our lives. Sometimes, I feel that if I were to be on one of those game shows about my family, that we would all fail miserably, because heck if I know what my dad’s favorite cereal is. My father is a mail man, and is retiring in about 2 months. He is deeply in love with my mother, who is a court reporter, and doesn’t work a whole lot. My sister just moved out this past year, but still manages to come home every single weekend of her life to visit the love of her life, (for now) Brett. But in spite of it all, in spite of the harsh tones or the bitter banter, my family is probably one of the most important things in this world, to me. I know I’m not the most family oriented person, I don’t love to hang out with my family or even spend a ton of time with them, but I know that they love me, and that they would always defend me, and choose me over anything, no matter what. No matter if I did something horrible, unethical, and immoral, they would be disappointed, extremely disappointed, in me but they would never leave me out to dry. We have the strong-silent type of bond.
My friends are important to me for the complete opposite reason. Not that I’m saying my friends wouldn’t stick up for me and choose me, that’s not the other side of the coin that I was talking about. What I mean is, my friends are so important to me because I can talk to them, about anything I want, and not even just anything but everything. I think that pretty much the only thing that I’m truly good at, I mean really blessed with the gift of, is making friends, and keeping friends. That may sound odd to you, but up until this point in my life, it’s the only thing I’ve been consistently good at, and I think that’s part of the reason that friends are so much more important to me, than to other people. My friends and I have SO much fun together, that’s pretty much the only reason I enjoy high school. We laugh all the time, we talk all the time, we’re just always together and always enjoying ourselves, it’s such a movie-script life in that aspect, and I am constantly trying to protect that. I’m not picky when it comes to friendship all I want is for that person to be able to hang out with me for a long period of time and not get annoyed with me and for me to be able to do the same with them. I want to be comfortable with that person, I want them to be able to talk to me and me to be able to talk to them. Pretty much I just want to be friends with "real" people, not superficial bimbo’s that look good on the social scale.
To me, being happy is one of the greatest things you can hope for, and I honestly believe that I am truly happy, and that is VERY important to me. I see people all the time that are constantly depressed or upset, they hate life, they hate themselves and the world; that’s no way to live life. If you have any control over your life and your emotions I would strongly advise you to choose to always be happy, it’s so healthy and wonderful. I mean, honestly, who wouldn’t choose that as a permanent lifestyle? It’s such a great way to make friends and people would rather hang out with a happy person, and the general public would rather be kind to a smiling person. Just walk into a tense situation and face it with a smile. Now that’s power, to be able to change the moods of everyone in the room, that’s the most incredible feeling. If you were to be here with me now and ask people what they thought of me, that’s probably what the majority of them would say, that I’m a happy person. I don’t know if people know much about me, other than that. I sort of have a fear of showing emotion, but I’m not afraid to be happy and friendly and so that’s the part of me I allow people to see, therefore that’s what they know about me. My close friends, the few that I’ve known long enough to let know everything about me, know that I’m not always happy, and I’m sure they know me better than even I do. Supposedly, I’m pretty readable, to those that are closest to me, but I always feel safer when I’m guarded and unemotional. I’m sure that’s not healthy, but that’s me. I think if I could change one thing about myself, that would be it, to be able to show emotion freely, without fear. Weird wish, I guess, but it is just so frustrating to feel like you can’t let anyone know how you’re feeling, it’s tough to hide everything from everyone when deep down you don’t want to anymore, it’s just what you’ve always done so you figure you have to just keep on doing it. But even so, it’s important to be happy and not let the little things get you down, it only causes for extra drama that you don’t need, it causes faux emotions that your not even feeling to be conveyed, and THAT can’t be healthy.
I would say in today’s world one of the most-used terms is "respect". I’m sure it has many meanings to many different people, but to me, it’s just the idea of common courtesy. In relationships, friendships, or with people you don’t even know, it is just common courtesy to be polite and treat people as you would like to be treated. This concept is so important to me because of the huge number of people who just don’t understand. I mean, do they not understand that karma is going to come back and bite them in the butt for it? Obviously, they didn’t receive that memo. I often think that people don’t see and understand how they are viewed, I don’t think anyone would choose to be thought of as mean, or conniving, or disrespectful I truly believe they just don’t realize what people think of them and their actions. I think it’s really important to step back, every once in a while, and see yourself, and your actions, from a different perspective. Because if you aren’t being respectful to others, and their feelings and opinions, than u don’t truly deserve to have them show u respect. I feel that if I try to be nice to everyone, if I try so hard to treat everyone equally, and treat them all well, that I deserve to be treated nicely as well. And I know that, most of the time, this perfect system I have in mind doesn’t work, but maybe someday things will be as they should be.
These days, in 21st century America, there are so many opportunities, and so many paths, to choose from, but for me, the road I want is the road toward happiness. I know that my entire letter has been about being happy, but I think, that if you’re unhappy, life just isn’t even worth living, and I’ve been blessed so greatly, with the gift of happiness, that I want everyone I come in contact with to share it with me. I don’t know how the rest of my life will go, but all I really want is a family that loves me, and a career that I enjoy. I want everyday to be an adventure, and I want to appreciate what I have, while I have it. I’m glad I got to write this letter, and I hope you are glad to have read it, I hope you will take what I’ve said to heart and just know that I wasn’t just some old lady that died, but that I was you’re great-grandmother, even when I was a 16 year old girl, with her entire life in front of her. You know how my story ends, how will yours end?
With great love...
i know it was long, but i liked the assignment, changedfish
