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egypturnashSo there's this meme going around: five things you'd tell yourself at 16.
I can barely remember who I was at sixteen. It's more than half my life ago, and it's in the long grey blur of being dead bored in high school and still deeply depressed over my father's death.
1. Hi, Paul. I'm you from 2007. Yeah, I've gone through a few changes. Look, remember that time you were, like, two or something and you [REDACTED]? Anyway. Here's some stock tips and some betting picks and all the usual kinds of things time travellers hand themselves, good luck. Sorry, you don't get my time-travel device; this isn't The Man Who Folded Himself.
2. Yeah, I'm a girl now. The only regret is that I didn't start it earlier. Changing that let me finally work through some of the gloom that still lingered about Dad's death. I'm not entirely sure it's not a result of the way I withdrew from the world; I'm pretty sure it was there from age twelve or so. Anyway, it's an option. I'm a hell of a lot happier now.
3. Programming is fun but I couldn't hack the math. Animation is on its way up into a boom, and if you go into college as computer science, it'll be coasting down from that by the time you change majors, then go out to LA for animation school. Look into animation school now. I ended up at Spümcø - geeze, has Ren and Stimpy come out yet? Um, same guys who did a lot of the work on Bakshi's Mighty Mouse? Oh, god, that isn't out yet either, is it? - because of my self-taught programming skills, but I mostly did animation stuff. Animation is a lot of work and I'm burnt out on it now, and 3D drops the bottom out of the industry; enjoy it while you can. You'll learn to draw really good, at least.
4. Every risk I've taken worked out. It's when I slump into depression and gloom and fear that things go downhill.
5. There is no perfect lover for you. But there are many possibilities once you stop being a little knot of self-hate and bitterness. I have two boyfriends; they came as a matched set. And there are other people I flirt with. You probably won't end up anywhere near the same place I did but if you can get through all the self-hate there'll be interesting, sexy people of several genders!
There's no warnings about who I should be dating. I was a pretty lonely and loveless kid.
I can barely remember who I was at sixteen. It's more than half my life ago, and it's in the long grey blur of being dead bored in high school and still deeply depressed over my father's death.
1. Hi, Paul. I'm you from 2007. Yeah, I've gone through a few changes. Look, remember that time you were, like, two or something and you [REDACTED]? Anyway. Here's some stock tips and some betting picks and all the usual kinds of things time travellers hand themselves, good luck. Sorry, you don't get my time-travel device; this isn't The Man Who Folded Himself.
2. Yeah, I'm a girl now. The only regret is that I didn't start it earlier. Changing that let me finally work through some of the gloom that still lingered about Dad's death. I'm not entirely sure it's not a result of the way I withdrew from the world; I'm pretty sure it was there from age twelve or so. Anyway, it's an option. I'm a hell of a lot happier now.
3. Programming is fun but I couldn't hack the math. Animation is on its way up into a boom, and if you go into college as computer science, it'll be coasting down from that by the time you change majors, then go out to LA for animation school. Look into animation school now. I ended up at Spümcø - geeze, has Ren and Stimpy come out yet? Um, same guys who did a lot of the work on Bakshi's Mighty Mouse? Oh, god, that isn't out yet either, is it? - because of my self-taught programming skills, but I mostly did animation stuff. Animation is a lot of work and I'm burnt out on it now, and 3D drops the bottom out of the industry; enjoy it while you can. You'll learn to draw really good, at least.
4. Every risk I've taken worked out. It's when I slump into depression and gloom and fear that things go downhill.
5. There is no perfect lover for you. But there are many possibilities once you stop being a little knot of self-hate and bitterness. I have two boyfriends; they came as a matched set. And there are other people I flirt with. You probably won't end up anywhere near the same place I did but if you can get through all the self-hate there'll be interesting, sexy people of several genders!
There's no warnings about who I should be dating. I was a pretty lonely and loveless kid.