What I'm Loving Wednesday...10 year love letter.

I mentioned the other day that the school I do most of my sub work at is basically in the same town I "grew" up in. I say "grew" because my family moved to Northern CA the summer before I entered 6th grade, so basically I consider the charming town of Burlingame to be my hometown. As the anniversary of my 10 year high school graduation draws near I have found myself reflecting and reminiscing about the last ten years, the ways I have grown, the growth I have ahead of me and the events of the last 10 years that have led me to the place I find myself now.

I think about my 18 year old self sitting in the passenger side of my car as I drive down the familiar road "home" past the high school, and I wonder what I would tell her as I turned off and headed onto the freeway into San Francisco, instead of heading down the road home and into that driveway on Castillo Avenue.

I would tell her that she no longer lives there, in fact no one in her family lives there. I would tell her that her family moved back to the east coast last year but she stayed behind, for many reasons, school, her boyfriend, and her friends. I would tell her that she is a teacher, to which she would reply "well of course" ;) I would tell her that it took her a long time to get there, and the last ten years have had their fair share of ups downs, that life has been beautiful and difficult that she has grown so much and is finally becoming the woman she dreamed she would be as she walked across that stage one June evening in 2001.

I feel like she would be confused by a lot and feel that so much had changed that how without her family here could she feel at all home? And that is when I would tell her it is because of them...

Then...and...



Now...they have been your constant.

Then...and...

Now...they have stood by you.

Then...and...




now...they have celebrated life's milestones with you.

Then...and...


and now...they are your heart and your soul.

Then...and...

now...you mold each other into the women you want to become

Then...you dream about the future together...

and now...

you watch that future unfold.

Then...and...





now...we watch each other grow.

I would tell my 18 year old self that the most amazing thing to happen in the last ten years would be that the friendships that she made in high school are the friendships that have made her into the woman she is now. That the girls she walked across that stage with are now the women that have grown with her, in every step, through every fall, and every achievement, through times of feeling lost, and times of feeling right at home. They are the women you watch achieve their dreams, fall in love, start families. They are the women who make you laugh and cry with you through the hurt. They cheer you on in all that you do, commiserate with when you are down and celebrate through the night when times are beautiful.

They are your friends, then...and...now.

This is my love letter to them. Happy ten years S9. You are the loves of my life.

And that my friends is what I'm loving Wednesday.

-miss v