The Teenage Years

ChellBell invited a sweet friend to spend the night last Friday night.  The girls played so well together, and at one point I realized that it had been totally quiet upstairs for about 30 minutes.  So being a nosey Mom, I snuck upstairs and pressed my ear against Chell's bedroom door.  This is what I heard:

Amber:"Ummmm, LIKE, I wanted to get my ears pierced, but my Mother soooooooooo wouldn't let me!"

ChellBell: "That's TOTALLY wrong, and, ummmmm, Mom's should just try to be sooooo cool."

Amber: "Oh, I, LIKE, LOOOOOVE that top you're wearing!  

ChellBell: "Thanks, it's TOTALLY my favorite.  I just LOOOOVE the color sky blue."

On and On.  I was instantly transported back about 25 years to the land of Valley Girls.

But ChellBell doesn't normally talk Valley Girl, so I popped the door open a little bit more to get a full understanding of what was going on.  Each girl had a cell phone against her ear, and, even though they were sitting 4 feet apart, they were talking to each other on non-operating cell phones.

I had to ask the question.  "What are you girls playing?"  

The answer?  "Teenager"  "We are pretending to be teenagers talking to each other on the phone."

My first thought?  Why on earth would anyone want to pretend to be a teenager??  I can totally understand pretending to be a highly compensated doctor, or a teacher who changes students' lives, or even a famous rock star.  But a teenager?? 

The teenage years are tough.  You're starting to come in to your own, but you're not quite there (can you hear Britney Spears singing, "I'm not a girl, but not yet a woman").  Hormones rage.  Acne appears.  You're no longer that cute kid that you were 10 years prior.  You're a teenager.  Growing and learning about yourself and the world around you.  Trying to be comfortable in your own skin.  Wanting to be liked.  Wanting to be loved.

Today is May 18th, and Chris and I have now been married 13 years.  Thirteen.  We are now teenagers!  Life with Chris has been good these past 13 years, but there are some very teenager-ish things about being married this long.  We're not as cute as we were 10 years ago.  The "new-ness" and bliss of the newly-wed years have cured, like copper that used to be shiny and now has a very weathered patina.  But we've grown comfortable with each other.   And we can finish each other's sentences.  We know how the other thinks.  Sometimes blemishes start showing up that never popped up in the early years. But we work through those things.  And the patina gets darker.  

Even after 13 years, we're growing and learning about the world around us.  Still wanting to be liked.  Still wanting to be loved.

Chris, you do such a great job of loving me.  You somehow over look my faults and you just love me.  It's a privilege to walk through life next to you, seeing the world through your eyes and sharing my vision with you.  I'm crazy about you, still.  So hold my hand, and don't ever let go.

I love being a teenager with you.