Things to take with me
In the past three days, I have figured out that I really suck at skiing. I stack at least three times a day, and steep hills scare the shit out of me. But the good thing is, I have the best friends who will wait ten minutes while I try and put skis on, help me look for the skis and stocks that have scattered around the slope and pick me up when I fall over. They’re also crazy enough to sneak party items (such as a flamingo-shaped piñata named Florence) onto a 9 hour bus trip and tell scarily convincing lies to get my friend and I into the same room for a birthday party where I sat on a popper and ruined a book.
I realised that I really can’t trust my brother to help keep the house tidy while I’m away, but really, what was I expecting? He’s cool in other ways, he just sucks at cleaning. I know how much I need my mum around because it’s really, really shitty to have to look after two guys, and work, and go to school. I’m glad she got to take this holidays, because if I can’t handle it for three weeks, how does she do it all the time? And my dad? He’s that weird, quiet, chain-smoking stable man that I think would probably support me through everything. As much as I love mum, she’s prone to having fits and making decisions for me, and I know that dad pretty much trusts my decisions and I am so unbelievably grateful for that.
I have eleven weeks until I lose massive chunks of my life to my last year of school. I’m quitting piano lessons, trying to get a job where I can work less and get paid more and probably going to have zero social life. But I’m so sure I can make it through. After all, it’s just a bunch of exams and there is so much more than just school. I just don’t know what it is yet, but I’m going to figure it out around this time next year. I am going to sacrifice a little bit and know that when this is over, I’ll get a lot back.
These are the things I know for sure. Things that I can’t prove wrong. Things that hold me up. I’m deciding, on my seventeenth birthday, that these are the things that I want to carry with me throughout the rest of the year, because this is what’s going to pull me through.
# Amanda, 3 months, 3 weeks ago.
Are you trying to copy the “at seventeen I learnt…” format in Looking for Alibrandi? :P
# Tracey, 3 months, 3 weeks ago.
I haven’t read that book in ages. But no… I can’t say I was thinking of it when I wrote this.
# Felisa, 3 months, 3 weeks ago.
You just have to love your friends when they do stuff like that. The stuff my friends had to put up with on our 10 day roadtrip made me realize how much they love me.
Did all your other realizations dawn on you because of the skiing trip? Even that bit about your brother and your parents?
# Tracey, 3 months, 2 weeks ago.
Not all of it Felisa! All of it’s pretty much over the last few years though… Not just my ski trip though!
# Holly, 3 months, 2 weeks ago.
You know you have awesome friends when…they name a pinata! I’d feel mean hitting it though, if it had a name! Poor Florence the Flamingo! :P
# Amber, 3 months, 2 weeks ago.
I was confronted with the image of Bridget Jones when reading about your skiing; of course, now you just need your Colin Firth to stand at the bottom, waiting for you. :P
# Georgia, 3 months, 2 weeks ago.
You didn’t ruin the book, its still good. In fact I am reading it right now.
I still can’t believe they somehow smuggled a Florence the pinata, Tolstoy the turtle and your elephant down. They must have been crazy.
“What on earth do you have under your bed?”
“I LIKE YOUR SHIRT!”
Hahahahhaa that whole night was hilarious.