What are some things you remember about being sixteen?

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1. nights drinking at a random cabin in the woods with a bonfire. i miss those times dearly

2. Long, late night drives back from a rodeo or martial arts tourneys with my mother.

3. Going to concerts and festivals with friends and starting with getting drunk with beer (legal drinking age 16 here) etc.
   Good times. Started to dye my hair green at that age.

4. I had these big clompy workboots that I loved (I wanted Docs but wouldn’t spend the money on them) and my depression was getting bad again but I remember being very sure of myself and who I was.

5. Sneaking out of my parents house to see a concert on a weekday and Tijuana

6. Waiting at the bus stop in the rain. I loved rain and still do.

7. My dad worked offshore for like 6 months. So two weeks at a time I got to drive his car to school and work. People don’t expect a blonde headed child to step out of a super loud 86 Cutlass Supreme with a blower through the hood. I felt like a badass everywhere I went.

   I remember vividly all the kids at my school turning their heads to see who could possibly be driving up in that dragster and it was little old me.

8. Low self esteem, isolating myself, hating high school, fighting with parents. Glad things have gotten much better

9. Having a crush on a boy

10. I was a revolutionary wanting to change/save the world.
    My 16-year-old self would be disgusted with how fucking mainstream and unpolitical I’ve become.

11. Late night hangout sessions with friends, and volleyball practices.

12. Trying to fit in and failing

13. My friend and I camped out in her backyard. Her little brother and his friends threw tomatoes at us while we were sleeping. I just remember being pelted with tomatoes

14. Not feeling like I was good enough like I was out of place and weird like I was some strange being that no one wanted to know or be associated with.

    Like despite having a friend group, I was beginning to struggle with things, like anxiety and it’s when my self-esteem issues really started to rear their ugly head

15. Getting shingles and detention in the same day. Detention was for wearing a warm jacket that was not school uniform. The uniform one was a thin nylon, unlined raincoat.

16. I remember my dad pulling me from my high school basketball team in the middle of a game.

17. My main social circle was the youth group at church. It broke that year that a close friend (16-17yo) of mine had a year-long sexual “relationship” with a married church member who assisted with the youth group. She’d been their babysitter. The fallout from that situation contributed greatly to my loss of faith over the next decade.
    I was working after school as a “hardware honey” (cashier) at a tiny Ace Hardware…did we really not challenge the sexism?? Getting my first great haircut, getting the braces I’d worn for 5 years off…liking the way I looked a little for the first time.

18. Sleepovers and hanging out all the time with my close girl friends. Going to the movies every weekend. My mom and dad having a lot of arguments.

19. lol i remember fucking hating my ap classes. i think that might’ve been my loneliest year in high school. my hs bestie and i never had classes together, so we’d only see each other on Wednesdays

20. stereotypical but i remember how much i hated myself and all of my friends. looking back it makes me so glad im not nearly as superficial and insecure.

21. I was actively suicidal, I was horrible to my friends and I didn’t think I’d live to see 18

22. I don’t even remember what it feels like being 2 years ago and before that.

23. I was smoking alot of weed skipping school and having sex with my boyfriend at the time. Fun.

24. Mostly I remember being an emotional disaster and taking it out in the worst ways. I did a lot of impulsive things because I didn’t think I’d be around long enough to see where I am now. Thankfully things have really turned around 🙂

25. I was anxious to get a job, my parents finally agreed to let me get one that summer, the summer before my senior year of high school. I bought my first phone (virgin mobile flip phone!) with my first paycheck. I bought my first iPod with my second paycheck. I was really excited to have both. I wrote a lot, I wanted to be a writer. I carried around a notebook full of poems and stream-of-consciousness thoughts. I was excited and anxious about my future. My parents were strict and very seldom let me go anywhere that wasn’t really a school function, I had a stereo with like a 50-disc cd changer, so I spent lots of nights hanging out in my room listening to music while drawing, painting, writing or talking to friends and strangers on AIM. I spent a lot of time daydreaming about my crush, who I never spoke to or told a soul that I even liked him. And now I’m married to him! Life is wild. I didn’t have a whole lot of friends, but I was very close with the ones I did have. Almost 20 years later and I miss those days. Thank you for letting me reminisce.

26. Money not even being on my mind as something to worry about.

27. Going drifting, trying substances, sneaking out at night.

28. I was already addicted to smoking and very anxious to get out of high school and move out of my parent’s house. I was out to eat one night and the table placemat was a picture of the US and I used that to map out a road trip I was going to take as soon as I turned 18. I spent ages 16-17 impatiently waiting to become an independent adult. The road-trip never happened until I was in my late 20’s.

29. Bf issues, school exams, being on a sports team. I liked my highschool years, I didn’t love it though due to some minor drama that came into my life and also school preparations were rough to try and get to college. Whatever I was interested, I gave it a shot and I don’t have regrets because about it. I did however wish I didn’t live in a very overly protective home as it was very hard to hang out with friends outside of school, but thank God for after school activities.

30. Lmao I was soooo into this one boy. He came onto me, had my first everything with him, and it was like I was obsessed with him for a solid 2-3 months. I thought about him all the time.

    Turns out, he was cheating on his girlfriend with me, so 10/10 would not do it again. Then I moved on to another guy…same fucking thing.

    So, yeah…

31. It being the worst year of my life.

32. kip winger shes only seventeen