I've been having a lot of conversations with people lately about the fact that I would not want to go back to my teen years, too much drama. I wouldn't want to go back to my twenties because I was too black and white like the woman I wrote about in the previous post. Most of my thirties were a blur because I had little children who sapped my memory cells. Right around 39 or 40 though, I think I hit the peak of my looks.
Of course, I'm making assumptions that things are not going to get better from here.
First of all, I loved my hair then. It was long and curly. One of my journalist friends described it as romance heroine hair. I think I had finally just given up on doing anything to it and now that I look back, I love the way it looked.
I've been straightening it for a couple of years now, so it gets cut shorter and shorter because straightening it dries out the ends. The hair dresser cuts off the dead ends and now my hair is barely to my shoulders when straightened. Try to picture how short that is when I let it curl.
Look at this man in the market. He is delighted with me. Okay, maybe he is delighted that I am buying some of his product, but I think that I had no idea how charming I was at the time. Can I go back there now and take advantage of the attention?
A careful reader of this blog might notice that all of these photos were taken in France. Maybe I am just connecting a wonderful memory with the photos and think that I look better then.
I was also in pretty great shape. I think this was the year after I ran the marathon. Earl and I biked around Provence.
I didn't mind bicycling around France in a pair of padded shorts and I had a wrap around skirt that I pulled over the shorts when we stopped for lunch.
Maybe the looks are not better or worse than they are now or than they were before. Maybe it all has to do with how I was feeling at the time. If so, this picture pretty much says it all:
How about you? Would you go back to a previous age? Would you go back to the way you looked a previous age?
6 comments:
I caught the France pics!
I'm enjoying my 40's. But I did enjoy my 30's as well. I don't know if I'd go back. I really do believe in the old cliche "youth is wasted on the young" and I was no different. There are parts of my 20's that I would appreciate if I could have it now, but ultimately I'm happy to stay at the age I am now.
Hi Paulita...Interesting that a friend of mine and I were having this conversation last night. I look better now than I did 10 years ago, that is sure. And I feel better. So I imagine I have no desire to go back. But the strange and awful thing about being past 50 is knowing this will not last very much longer. If I allow myself to think about it, it scares me.
Delana, But you probably thought that at 40. So maybe as we get older and wiser we do look better. I'm going to start growing my hair out again and count on looking more relaxed, thus better.
I wouldn't go back for anything. I'm too excited about what tomorrow will bring!
I never felt so beautiful in my life as when I was bald this past year. So, I completely agree when you say "maybe it all has to do with how I was feeling at the time." It IS about how you feel.
You have yet to "hit the peak of your looks", trust me.
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