Letter to 35 year old Veronica

Dear Veronica,           

First of all, let me congratulate you on paying off your school loans!!! WOOOOO! And if they’re not paid off by 35, I want you to do me a favor and punch yourself in the arm. Great, thanks. Now I’m going to tell you all the things I hope we’ve accomplished by 35.

1.      School loans GONE.

2.      Traveled to England, Ireland (again), Australia, and Scotland.

3.      Swam with dolphins.

4.      Saw a Broadway show in New York.

5.      Been to Disney World and Universal.

What was the other thing….hmm….what was it again? Oh yeah, I remember now. BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR. Please, please, please be a published author. If you’re not, you need to reevaluate everything you’ve been doing the past nine years. Unless something terrible happened and it set you off the course of being a writer. I understand it’s exhausting and scary and nerve wracking to constantly put your work out there and be rejected. But you have to remember how much you love it. How much you love writing and how your brain actually hurts if you don’t write for a long time. Writing is your therapy, it saves your sanity and you need it. So if for some reason, you strayed from it, go to Target (Target better still be around), go to the journal and stationary section, and pick out a new one. Take it home, sit at your desk and write. Write about why you stopped. Write about what you ate that day. I don’t care what you write about just do it. Enjoy the pen being in your hand again and learn to love it again. Do it for 13 year old Veronica and 25 year old Veronica. We all appreciate it….I’m starting to sound a little like Sybil.

If you’re married, I mean…cool? It’s not something I ever really sought after or saw in my ten year plan but if you found someone willing to tolerate your constant chatter and watching movies from the 80s then awesome. Hope you didn’t spend a fortune on the wedding and instead put it towards a destination honeymoon.

If you have children…I don’t even know what to say about it. Children are an aspect of life I never saw myself taking part in. I can’t imagine why or how my opinions on this would change in ten years because I’ve known for the past ten they are not what I want. I’m not trying to upset you or guilt you if you did end up having kids. I just want there to be a really great reason for it. And if you did have kids, well they better be boys or tomboys and they better love old school Disney movies.

There are other things I wish for us. I hope Mom, Dad, and Dave are all okay and doing well. I hope you’re still friends with the people I’m friends with now because I can’t imagine a life without them. Even if you don’t see them all the time, do us a favor? Give them a call and go hang out. Probably at Bill and Chrissy’s house, like always.

Being 35 doesn’t scare me. I finally feel (at 25) we’re hitting our stride. You know we never felt our age as a teenager. Always wanting to be older, to get to the better part of life. The part I’m in now is good, really good actually but I hope yours is better. I hope it only ever gets better with age. Growing up doesn’t scare me and I hope it still doesn’t scare me when I’m 35.

Please be happy. We spent a lot of years being unhappy. We spent a lot of years being upset and taking things too seriously and beating ourselves up.

I hope you’re okay.

I hope you’re better.

I hope you are so very happy with your life.

And if you’re not, then change it.

Right now.

-25 year old Veronica