Dear Shakespeare,
I'm turning a great big glittering 16 in two weeks; the
orange pop fizzing longing I once felt
for my birthday when I was younger seems to have disappeared. It's like Christmas once I learned that
Santa didn't really live in the north pole with a magical factory and was
actually my parents tiptoeing 'round the house once I had gone to sleep. Though
the logical part of me understands this I desperately cling to the idea of
never growing old, I still try to fool myself into believing in Santa and his
reindeer, juvenile as it sounds. The idea of growing up frightens me because I
feel like once I get older I will lose the ability to dream and imagine
and desperately want rainbow hair. I'll become dull and dry as a piece of plain
wholemeal toast. I worry that as I get older the strength of my feelings
will wane, that once I become a proper adult everything will be a muted palette
of pastel emotions. For some reason I've always thought this way, as a child I
dreaded the thought of becoming a teenager, of getting closer to adulthood. When
I watched the film Peter Pan for the first time when I was five I
sobbed inconsolably at the end. Because
Peter had never chosen to save me and
take to Neverland and become his best friend and partner in mischief. Instead
he'd taken an unthankful Wendy and
she left him, she left it all to grow up into a "lady" until she
could no longer remember Neverland. It makes me really sad, even now, to think
that as she got older she forgot. I'm being forced to grow up, in both a
physical and emotional sense, I'm no longer a child yet neither an adult.
Everyone around me is getting older,
playing dressups as they navigate through adult thoughts and troubles, and I can either stay behind all on my own or go along and see what
happens.
I saw this shirt online a while back, I think it really addresses my
current emotional state. It was designed by Jeremy Scott. If you find
yourself bored and floating through the multiple dimensions of the internet
which surely exist, check his stuff out
In entirely unrelated matters I'd like to show you some of my recent attempts at watercolors and other things...
Sorry for the terrible Iphone quality of the pictures, they are inspired by different things which I may expand on at a later date when I'm not wheezing over my keyboard due to an awful cold. Alas,what do You think Shakespeare? Utterly terrible, probably. How are you? I tend to babble about myself in a narcissistic fashion quite a lot. I haven't forgotten about you though
Truly Mary,
P.s I was thinking of doing a photoset with a friend that describes my feelings about turning 16. I'll show you soon and explain it all. Or maybe I'l send you a list of different photo-set ideas I've had
P.p.s Discovery is the lovechild of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot and I love it a lot! This is one of their songs
I turn 21 in two weeks! I'm less terrified than I was of turning 16, or 18, or even 20. Don't worry about losing your dreams or imagination. Growing up actually means less people trying to push you out of those things, and it's easier to get away from the ones who do. There's definitely more responsibility, but there's also no one to stop you dyeing your hair rainbow colours. The older I get, the less I feel like I have to hide the things I love for the sake of fitting in. I get toddler-style excited about stuff, and it's awesome. I promise it's not as scary as it seems! (paying bills is dreadful, though)
ReplyDeleteOk so I'm sorry for taking a while to reply. I didn't know how to respond, your comment was super intelligent and has made me rethink the idea of growing up, hence my lack of replying until I had thought about. I'm still a bit scared but you've definitely made me feel better about my birthday and yay for toddler-style excitement. I was probably way too melodramatic in this letter but oh well, it's how I felt. Thankyou for making me feel much better about getting older. When I'm 80 I'm going to be the old lady rocking a purple afro and dressed like Irene Apfel
DeleteThat sounds amazing, you will definitely be the coolest 80-yr old on the block! And I'm glad I could make you feel a bit better about aging. It's not as bad as it sounds!
DeleteOoops i totally meant Iris Apfel and yeah thanks again for being fab
DeleteVERY NICE THIS POST!!!!:)
ReplyDeleteI like so much your watercolors/collages! good work;)
LiLLy / GialloDiNylon ---> giallodinylon.blogspot.it
Awww yay and thanks a bunch :) You are too nice and fabaroonie
DeleteHad to comment again, your writing is just too perfect and described how I also felt very well, especially this: "The idea of growing up frightens me because I feel like once I get older I will lose the ability to dream and imagine and desperately want rainbow hair." Growing up absolutely terrifies me, I have no idea what I want to do and how I will cope in such a sad, superficial world. (I also just watched Ghost World which doesn't help matters.) But I don't think it'll be as bad as we make it out to be, it'll probably just happen without us even realising. Your art is really great :)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh you are too lovely, thanks!! I have wanted to watch and read Ghost World for the longest time! Also it's kinda coincidental because I was writing down some thoughts on growing up in my notepad recently and I basically described it as something that happens without you feeling it until one day you realize you prefer rhubarb tart for desert as opposed to cotton candy. So usually it's invisible but I feel like it becomes painfully obvious on birthday's and I feel really sad about getting older on my birthday.
DeleteAww, your art is so sweet!! Also, all of your writing is great and wonderfully articulates the desperate feeling of wanted to be a kid forever.
ReplyDeleteyayyy!! Thankyou. Oh gosh I love your art, like I am always astounded when I see your watercolours, urghh. Also your blog is wonderblime, I think I've been reading it in a few too many English classes
Delete