The Things I'd Tell My Younger Self Series: Elementary School

There is no denying that I have a wonderful life.  This life is never perfect, but I have everything I ever dreamed of when I was young.

Do you ever think about how nice it would be to go back and tell your younger self something?  Maybe it's advice that you would like to give, or just reassurance that things will work out and you will be alright.  I know I feel that way from time to time, and for some reason, I've really been thinking about it lately.

Maybe some of the things I would go back and tell my younger self will strike a chord with you.  Or, maybe they will help someone else in some small way.  So, here goes, a series of blog posts dedicated to just that.

What I would tell elementary school Jennifer

She looked something like this:

And with her family, she was happy.  Using her imagination to make up stories for herself and her little sister (see that little cutie in the background?), she was happy.  When she learned in third grade, based on her first standardized testing, that she was actually one of the smartest kids at school, she was happy.

But, she had so much trouble making friends.  It was scary, and sometimes it physically hurt inside.  She walked around the playground by herself, off and on, throughout her elementary school years.  That was so much easier than trying to make friends, or worse, being rejected by a friend that she thought she'd made, as happened a few times.

This is what I would go back and tell her, if I could...

Dear 8-year-old Jennifer,

You will always be an introvert, but you won't always be shy.  Someday, you won't be afraid to strike up a conversation with someone new.  You won't even be afraid of public speaking someday, which I know you can't even imagine now.  Better than that, you will have friends.  You will have just a few close friends that will get you through all of the disappointments of middle and high school, but that will be enough.  You will appreciate them more because you've gone through friendlessness in elementary school, and because you will still just have a few real friends for the rest of your school years.

I know you can't believe this now, but as an adult, you will have more friends than you can count.  You won't be the best at keeping in touch with all of them, but there will be this thing called social media that will help you out a lot with that.  You will have the kinds of friends that even if you don't talk for long periods, you know you could call them up in the middle of the night, and they would help any way they could.  And you would do the same for them.  You will make lifelong friends in many different towns across the eastern United States.  You will make friends that are just there for a season of your life, but you will remember them and appreciate them always.

Friends will get you through things that you couldn't make it through on your own.  Friends will encourage you to stay in shape, to travel, to be a better wife and mother, to love and more closely connect to God... 

I know, right now, you hurt.  You don't understand why other kids don't want to play with you.  You don't understand why it is so hard for you to just go up and talk to other kids.  But, I promise, it gets easier.  Life, overall, will be harder when you are grown.  But you will have the friends and community you need to get you through all of it.  You will have people who love you and so many that you love.

The things you fear so much now, you won't fear then.  Friends will be there for you, and they will make you strong.

Love, 42-year-old Jennifer