So recently my sister packed up all my diaries, that were still at my family home, and dropped them off by me. It was quite strange to look down into a box and see, what must have been, six years of my life.
Six years of my life in a box, just like that. My friends and I always joke that thankfully we didn’t have Facebook when we were teenagers. Well, I have my own handwritten version of my teenage years which are methodically written down on hundreds of pages, can I hear an “Oh my!”
It’s all there, trust me I’ve gone through some of it. Every dream, every heartbreak, every love and every single, silly teenage girl thing you can imagine.
I wrote it for different reasons, one being that I wanted to leave it to my children one day and another being that at heart I have always been a hopeless romantic and I wanted to write my whole love story down. That is exactly what ended up happening, because shortly after I met my husband, I stopped writing.
I would like to however share something that I found while reading through some of it. I wrote it for my children many years ago before they were born. It was nice reminding myself about it and feel that at times you should remember how you felt as a young person as well, as once you get older and become a parent you tend to forget these things.
On the 22nd September 2004, I wrote the following:
“I need excitement in my life, because I want to have lots of stories to tell you, my children, one day. The one piece of advice that you will probably hear me say often though, is that you must do what makes you happy and when you find what it is that makes you happy you must do it with all your heart.
Life is hard sometimes, but life is also great sometimes and it is all just one big adventure, follow your heart with a combination of your own and others wisdom and you will never go wrong. Never lose faith in yourself and in the people, that make you happy, we need these people, more than you are willing to admit most of the time.
Never forget what people teach you, they sometimes know more about you than you know about yourself and never sell yourself short, because if you are my children you are the best in the world and you will never lose my love for you and I will be with you always, even when you feel that I am not. Don’t judge me, I to can make mistakes and if one day I leave you, you will have these pages of my heart to read and to give you faith that the sun will rise in the morning and it will set at night, it will rain, but the sun will shine again once more and bring warmth into your cold and miserable days. I love you guys with all my heart and I am sure that you will become my life and soul one day when God decides that it is time for you to join me in my life. Never forget that no matter what you will always be a blessing to me and all who have the privilege of knowing and loving you. Learn from your mother’s mistakes and if you have to learn by making them yourselves then I will understand because I was also full of shit and learnt all my lessons the hard way. You are special in my eyes and there is nothing more beautiful than being able to see yourselves through the eyes of a mother who loves you.” – Justine Passetti
Well there you have it. Thank you for reading and remember to keep smiling.