Teenagers. They know everything. Especially when they're in love... Yes, I'm in my thirties now, but if I go back twenty years, I put myself in their shoes. Easy to do really, since I've been there. I have teenagers. They tell me their stories (sometimes) of love and heartbreak. I don't have to use much imagination to remember what those feelings were like. The good and the bad.
Oh, when teen love is good, it's great. You're on top of the world. Promises to love forever, and swearing that you're more mature than most people, so it's alright to bet that you'll beat the odds. My high school daughter tells me that kids her age are engaged. I happen to think that's so ridiculous that it's hilarious. Really?! These poor saps actually believe that they'll be together forever, even married. But I remember thinking the same thing... fifteen years and more than one husband ago.
My husband and I were high school sweethearts at one time. As we reminisce about days gone by, he always likes to remind me of how I "dumped him for someone else". So, when one of my kids comes home upset that something similar happened to them... I have to bite my tongue just a little bit. What I wanna say is "WHAT?! NOBODY hurts my baby!"... But what I have to take a deep breath and remember is... I did a lot of heart breaking when I was younger. I once broke up with a boyfriend while he was driving me home, after taking me to see my favorite singer in concert. ON THE WAY HOME!?! Who does that?! I have broken hearts, and I have had my heart broken.
These days, teenagers have the wonderful world of social networking. This is like having tabloids at your fingertips at any given moment. Seriously. One of my kids will be going through a break up one moment, and the next, there's a dozen other potentials all up on their Facebook wall. That’s one luxury we didn’t have. If we liked someone in grade school, we had to take out a pencil and paper… write a note that says “Will you go out with me? YES or NO… Circle one”. It had to be passed around to half the class before it made it to the intended… and we had to wait in desperation for it to be passed back with our fate circled. If we liked someone in middle school, we actually had to muster up the courage to ask one of our friends to go talk to them for us. If we liked someone in high school, we had to ask around to see if our friends thought they might be interested. All in effort of avoiding face to face rejection just in case it didn’t go as planned.
I will continue to nurture my children when they are hurting, all while making light of it, in hopes that they keep their chin up. I will continue to tease them when they exchange ‘I love you’ with their latest crush, because that’s what I do. Keep in mind; I did mention that my husband and I were high school sweethearts. Well, I dumped him for someone else. Then, somehow we found our way back to each other many years later. So, maybe we really did know what we were doing when we were teenagers. Maybe that’s when love is the purest, because our lives weren’t filled with stress. Either way, those hallways have seen a lot of heartbreak.
I love you all ; )
DRD
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