ASSIGNMENTS:
|
|
Cathy de la Cruz
San Diego, California USA
|
|
REPORTS:
PREVIOUS NEXT
|
|
Advice to Cathy de la Cruz at age 15
1. Sincerely tell your best friend, Chrissie Alvarado all the reasons you broke your promise to her that if she didn't get in to your snooty all-girls high school, you wouldn't go either, except now you are going. Write her a very explicit letter if you have to. Don't just apologize. You are 26 now and still are a horrible communicator with this person, this friend. This could pave the way for a lifelong journey of good communication between the two of you.
2. For Pete's sake, STAND UP STRAIGHT!!! You had horrible posture then and you have horrible posture now. I think it forever screwed up your shoulders. Don't you want adult-Cathy to have cute shoulders?
3. Don't fight your romantic love of women. Em-fucking-brace it. When Iliana locked you in the school darkroom with Aiesa so you would admit your feelings for each other, stay in there and ADMIT YOUR FEELINGS. Don't run out like a bad after school special and then avoid her for the rest of the year. You had no idea, but she would only get MORE attractive with age and you are still wondering what could have been over a decade later!
4. Eat better. Exercise more. Can't you think of eating healthy as yet another way to rebel against your parents since their eating habits are so bad?
5. Stop procrastinating. Finish all the books you were assigned in English class. Why didn't you want to read Hemingway and Steinbeck?! And take all the honors classes you can! You know you could have aced Honors English and it would have improved your GPA and your class rank and you would have gotten into more colleges and had more options and had BETTER SELF-ESTEEM! Damnit, Cathy. I mean it, STOP PROCRASTINATING. You are sitting here typing this up procrastinating something else. So sad.
6. Get braces now. Don't wait another year or two. The better to get them over with. TRUST ME.
7. Be in love with so-and-so. Maybe even lose your virginity to him. Ok, DEFINTELY lose your virginity to him. You would be so much more stoked with your decision now being as how he continued to be a REALLY great guy. And he's a little bit famous now (Sorry, but it's true.). Wouldn't you want to say you lost your virginity to a famous AWESOME guy as opposed to a guy that would practically RUIN YOUR LIFE years later?! I mean, seriously Cathy. This is a no-brainer.
8. Stop stop STOP being in love with that older guy. He is bad news and makes a MUCH better friend than boyfriend. Ugh. Get over it, Cathy. GET OVER IT. Cut off all contact with him NOW if you can. Did I mention that Aiesa and so-and-so are SUCH better love-candidates? And dating/obsessing over older guy ruins your relationship with Tatjana and adds fuel to your angst-ridden one with your parents. There are so many reasons this is bad and unhealthy. P.S. YOU'RE GAY!
9. Publish your zine. Give it away for free or trade or sell it to other riot grrrls. Definitely put out your zine. Make it anonymous if you have to. Just share your writing with the world now. It will make you so much happier later.
10. Play a show! You would feel so good now if your band had in fact opened for the Delta '72. Everyone in town would have supported a bunch of 14 and 15 year old girls playing punk music. Now you are 26 and still haven't played a show. Your bass is just sitting there.
11. Get more sleep. Maybe you would be taller now had you slept as much as you were supposed. TALLER!
12. Don't fool around with that other gross older guy. He's so gross, Cathy and he costs you your friendship with Ash for an entire painful year. And I don't even want to tell you what fooling around with him maybe leads to. Just no it leads to nothing good at all. He really doesn't deserve to get off, Cathy.
13. Get a cute stylish angular haircut now. Why did you either need to have a blunt cut with no bangs or a really bad DIY Betty Page bangs? For the love of god, DON'T CUT YOUR BANGS YOURSELF.
14. Read, read, read. And study a map for Pete's sake. Just because you haven't been places doesn't mean you can't know where things are.
15. Don't eat things that don't taste right or that have been left sitting out. You WILL get food poisoning.
16. Don't think about suicide. I mean, know that this thought will plague you probably forever or close to forever, but it will never get bad enough to act on it. Know that you are going to be happy one day. You will be so happy in like 3 or 4 years. So happy. And you will just keep getting happier.
17. Fucking study for your math classes. Why was math always so hard? Just pay attention! You could have done something so much better with your summers besides summer school.
18. Take World History instead of U.S. History! What were you thinking?!
19. Did I mention that you should be reading everything all the time and anytime? You will thank yourself for the knowledge later and appreciate the time you had to read because as you get older, you will have less time to yourself to read everything you would like to. I'm serious. And the public library where you live in SO GOOD.
20. And speaking of that public library, check out all those awesome movies...check out EVERYTHING. The classics, the foreign films...what else do you have to do with your weekends?!
21. Start talking to your mother about how her mother died. Force her in the gentlest way possible to open that can of worms. Otherwise it will destroy you when you find out everything all at once on your own. You already know. Just talk. It will improve your relationship with your mother in a way you desperately need right now. It's scary but it will only be scarier later. Just like putting out a zine or playing a show. Act now. What's the worst could happen? You're just a kid.
22. Maybe you should do something rebellious. Why not? Maybe this will get it out of your system so you don't fuck up as an adult. Do something predictably bad like get drunk or sneak out of the house? Maybe this will make your parents think listening to punk rock and reading feminist fanzines is not the end of the world.
23. Realize that you are totally special and don't feel lame for thinking that or knowing that. It will help all the downs that are part of the ups and downs seem a lot less traumatic.
24. Know that one day you will love someone and they will love you back.
25. Know that just because you love someone and they love you back, it isn't the only thing you want out of your life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
