To My 15 Year-Old Self

I was inspired by Sarah's blog to think about if my 15 year-old self would have been happy with how I turned out at 30... and the resounding answer is yes. I am going to refer to my 15 year-old self as "she" from now on, and yes, I am embarrassed to admit that that is yours truly at right about 15 on the right. My cheeks obviously had bad eyesight, that's why I needed glasses so big. :)

Don't judge me.

• She would have been surprised that I didn't get married right out of college (I always thought I would because that is how my parents did it).

Right before we brought him home from the hospital.

• She would be surprised that I had my first baby so much later than my mom did (she had me when she was 24, I had just turned 29 when I had Drew).
• She'd be surprised that it was so hard for me to adjust to being a mother, after all, I played "house" all the time when I was little and had a zillion baby dolls. :)
• She wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised that I still wake up early to be productive without distractions.

Riding the slowest, mangiest donkey in Santorini, Greece.

• I don't think my 15 year old self was really thinking about traveling abroad, but I've done it some (to England, Ireland, Wales, Greece and even Turkey for a morning).
• She would love that I'm still doing event planning, even though I never had my own business in Boston. (At 15 I was just starting to love event planning, at that point I think I still wanted to be an interior decorator.)
• She would be surprised that we have flipped a house and own rental properties.... probably because she had never heard of anything like flipping.
• After getting over the surprise that I didn't get married right out of college, she wouldn't be surprised that I lived with Kim (my sister) for a few years until tying the knot.
• She'd tell me I was an idiot for a few of the relationship choices I've made.
• She'd love that I blog about decorating because even then that was interesting to me, even though "blog" would have been an alien word then.

AJ and Drew at Bradley Palmer's Sprinkler Park.

• She would have loved AJ. Danielle and I drew up our dream guys, probably around the time we were 15, and somehow at that age I had the sense to draw in the important things, the character things you find in a hubby. AJ has those traits.
• And lastly, she wouldn't be the slightly bit surprised that I could drink hot chocolate all day long (and yes, only in the winter). :)