ASSIGNMENTS:
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Melissa O'Neil
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
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REPORTS:
PREVIOUS NEXT
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Advice to melissa, at age 19
1. Know that the parents who raised you far surpass the parents that made you, especially in the parental department. Do not insist, when you finally make contact with your biological parents, that all of your parents should meet up at a coffee shop and hang out. You will thank me later.
2. Pay attention to what is going on in the world. While your breast size will not change if you stare at them, you can smile at someone who needs it or feed someone who is hungry. Your breasts are small, but your impact can be widely felt.
3. Nourish the relationships that leave you speechless.
4. Think before you talk. Think before you act. Did you hear me?
5. When you are in your late 20s, you will think you know some things, even though you are steeped in a deep and dark depression. Do not listen to yourself. You are going through a time where you can't tell the difference between your head and your ass. Do not listen to either.
6. Pay attention to what your parents spend their time doing, for it is worth while. They are incredible and it is okay to admit it, even if you are a teenager and they are your parents.
7. The boy that you love and don't think you can live without will go on to love an exotic brown woman from Brazil. Let him go.
8. Commitment is not automatic in a relationship. It takes work more than it takes vows.
9. Just because you like someone doesn't mean you should let them anywhere near your body. Repeat. Repeat.
10. After college, don't move to Seattle with that long-haired hippie boyfriend who is bad for you. Instead, go to Olympia and stay with Gramma O'Neil. You don't know it yet, and you cannot imagine the implausibility of it all, but we only have 15 more years with her, which will never be long enough. Watch and help her deadhead her geraniums, record her talking, and do nice things for her, even if she insists that you shouldn't. Have her teach you how to make jam and cinnamon rolls, and call her every time you think of her. Keep sending her cards-she keeps them.
11. Watch how your mom times a meal perfectly, so that everything is ready and hot at the same time. Thank her for this marvel.
12. Don't take those herbal supplements, because you are pregnant and they will make you miscarry.
13. Plant roots in Oklahoma, even if it is contrary to what you think you should do, because you will be there for a long time, and eventually, you will like it there. Plant tomatoes, too, early and often.
14. Stop shaving your head.
15. You will be a mom someday, more than you ever thought you would be. Leave it be. It's coming.
17. Make choices that will not cause suffering.
18. Read Hafiz.
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