If I Could Write A Letter

Any of you who listen to country music at all know where I'm going with this. For those of you who don't, there is this song that Brad Paisley sings, "If I could Write A Letter to Me". The gist of the song is a guy who is well out of high school (I always imagined him in his 30's) who talks about writing a letter to himself at 17.

Anyways, I heard this song about 50 times on my way back from Valdosta a couple of weeks ago (on my way back from my high school reunion/homecoming) and it really got me thinking. What would I tell myself at 17? Geez that was ten years ago. I decided that that was what my next blog would be about. Well, of course life happened and I'm a known terrible blogger. However, I was on my way home from Tuscaloosa (for a Tennessee ballgame, goodness knows there is no other reason to go there!) last night and the song came on again. It was late, I was driving and it got me thinking again. Dirt was asleep in the front seat, Louise and Leigh were asleep in the back and we all had just had SO much fun!

What would I write to myself at 17? That's when it hit me. There is no way that I could have ever, ever guessed that I would be where I am ten years from then. What would I change? I mean I saw all of my friends in Dasher, they are all living TOTALLY different lives than me. I mean, not even close. They are ALL married with children, working doing what most people would call "careers". As we have covered in earlier posts, I am NONE of those things. Last night I went to a ballgame, got home close to 2am, woke up to a text from a friend at 6:30, talked on the phone and texted until 10:30, went back to sleep and didn't get up until 5! Now I am sitting here watching American Idol with Leigh. Nothing like any of the days my friends have.

I would tell myself some things to watch out for though. I would tell myself to study harder, slow down, stop putting so much effort into guys/dating and put more effort into friendships. However, the most important things I would tell myself are really the only things I would tell myself to do differently. I would tell myself to stop being a jerk to my mom. To respect her more and appreciate her more. I would tell myself to call my Grandaddy and Grandma so much more and to make a much better effort to spend time with them.

Last night when I was listening to that song, thinking back to the past ten years, what would I change and I looked back at my sisters sleeping and that's when I decided. All of the bad and good choices that I have made in the past ten years have brought me here. Why would I dare go back and change anything. You might say I could have changed some things and my life would have turned out better. But, if you said that, I'd know that you don't know very much about my life. My life is so good. The next song that came on the radio was by Tim McGraw. The name of that song was "In My Next 30 Years" Hmmm....that will probably be the name of my post on July 18, 2008. Thank you to all of my friends and family that have made the first 'almost thirty' years of my life so, so very good!