In a reversal of Big, the Tom Hanks classic from the 80s, your adult self is suddenly locked in the body of a 12-year-old kid. How do you survive your first day back in school?
I’m twisting this a bit, that I was 12 again, but back to me when I was 12 in 1973.
Oh, don’t we all wish we could go back to our youth, knowing then what we do now?
I’d be oh so much leary of boys, even as much as I was then, even more so if I went back to that age from now. Knowing how silly the whole adolescent thing is, I can just imagine some of the things I would say to those young lads that would probably turn their faces green hearing such as they’d never heard from any other class mate, let alone a girl! It might interest them even more to be sure they were my first kiss or scare the bloody pants off them so they be so scared of me never to say another word in my direction!
And the girls? I can imagine how blunt I would be to them about how boys aren’t everything, and how they would all probably hate me, but years later see I was most likely right!
Oh, the teachers – they’d probably all be admiring me for all the learning I was rapt in attention on hearing, cause now I’d know, even if I knew now it wasn’t important in day to day life, I’d still know the importance of learning. Course, I wasn’t a “D” student, by any means, no, an “A” or even a “B” if I didn’t grasp it well, still, I’d probably be head of my class, not 3rd or 4th.
And my parents, oh, my mom would probably wonder if I had been abducted by aliens like me and my sister once wondered about her – cause I’d be so helpful, kind and considerate, hugging and loving on her like she hadn’t seen from me since I was a toddler, and wonder why I was asking why she didn’t like doctors and trying to plant into her head, maybe they weren’t all bad even though I understand why she was leery of them, asking her about how her and Dad met, now they courted, how she felt on her honeymoon, and so many other things she’d most likely think maybe I had been abducted by aliens! She’d probably wonder why I’d was trying so hard to get her to spend time with her dad and asking about long gone ancestors with as much detail as she could provide, rapt with attention and taking notes. Yes, she’d certainly think I was ready to be committed!
And, even though I have a closer relationship with my dad now then I ever did, he’d probably be a wondering, too, what happened to this pre-teenager to make her so apt in attention, listening to her dad, and actually talking to him about realities of life, also asking questions about ancestors, his youth, his courting with mom – sure he’d conspire with mom and they’d both decide I must have gone mental!
My grandparents would most likely also think I had lost my mind and inquire after my parents as to what has become of their first granddaughter. I’d be wanting to spend time with Grandma so she could teach me how to make peach pie, coffee cake and numerous other canning and baking secrets. Then, she’d wonder why I’d taken a sudden interest in quilting, as I never had before.
Grandpa would wonder why I wanted to know what all was in his shed, why he liked Stag beer, how he met Grandma and if they “fell in love”, how their honeymoon went, and if he picked her over any other girl. He’d wonder why I was asking so many questions about his dad, Henry and his step-mom, Louisa, the farm, how it happened that the second house fell into disrepair, why he liked Archway cookies so much, and like Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap, I’d probably be steering him to see a doctor or quit smoking cigars.
I can’t even fathom how I’d treat my brothers and sisters! Imagine me, a relative 53 year old, dealing with my 14 or 16 year old brothers! They’d do their darndest to best me in verbal combat, but would most likely lose. My younger siblings, my sister and my brother, would also probably think I’d gone soft as I wondered after them, watching over them, and leaving tidbits of my wisdom, which they would probably ignore. Years later, they’d wonder how I knew so much back then, thinking I must have been beyond my years – ha! If they only knew!
Yes, it would be somewhere over the rainbow for me, but probably more so for those around me, they’d think I was one who had been caught up in a twister and got too big of a bump on my head, most likely.
Yes, it’s probably best this scenario can not in all reality play out, because I’m sure I’d not be able to act the typical 12 year old girl after 40 years, and possibly end up in a mental institution!
OSuzyQuilts, Free-motion Quilting and Meanderings 