The theme from Tara for The Gallery this week is: A younger me.
The temptation to plead all my old photographs are in my attic in Edinburgh was high for this one!
But nowadays Facebook catalogues everything, and if we want an embarrassing photograph of our younger selves it’s a fairly safe bet that there will be one on there somewhere!
In my case, one of my cousins kindly finds suitably toe curling photos and happily tags me in them :)
I particularly like this one (apologies for the quality, it’s a photo of a photo!). I’m the blonde on the right, my younger sister is on the left and my cousin in the middle.
It is so of its time, which is circa 1980 (at my best guess).
The dungarees, the blouses with bows :) Even the colours scream late seventies/dawn of the eighties.
And, oh, the hair!
I wonder what made the bowl cut so popular – it can’t have been for it’s looks; I smile when I see that my hair is kinked out on one side (it always did that, even hairdressers couldn’t tame it!); I remember how I longed for perfectly straight hair like my sisters; I wish that my hair was still that colour without assistance :)
But, I also realise that I have a tendency to blank out my younger self.
To wish away the shy child, the awkward teen with the braces, the eighties perm and the tendency to wear pink.
To fast forward to my more confident self (the one with straighter teeth and straighter hair and better dress sense!).
But looking at this girl makes me think about those formative years, for although I remember little about her, she became me.
She survived being the shy child and became stronger; she made it through her teenage years relatively unscathed and became confident; she had a blast living, working and partying her way through her twenties in London and became successful; she relished her thirties, getting married and having kids, and became happy; she is throwing herself into her forties and is becoming comfortable in her own skin.
She will help me guide my children through the trials of their school years; being teased and falling out with friends; first crushes, first dates and first broken hearts; through bad hair days and questionable fashion choices; through study and career choices, interviews, rejections, first jobs; relationships, marriage and children; through failure and success and everything in between.
Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.
Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional
Do you remember your seven year old self?
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What an uplifting post! I just love looking back on old photos, although like you most of them are in my parent’s attic. Loving The Gallery posts today, so nostalgic. x PS I too had the dodgy bowl cut!
Thank you, that’s a lovely comment xx
Such a cute photo! I had a very similar hairstyle just briefly before my mum decided it would be a good idea to cut it all of so I would look like a boy.
Ah, I often wonder what on earth our parents were thinking when I look at photos from the 70’s and 80’s :)
What a lovely post. You look so cute Sara! That hair cut is adorable. I think like you I have a tendancy to shun away the memories of childhood – gawky, and braces and not really comfortable in myself. But you are right – it is important to embrace the younger you, as she has made you who you are today. xx
Thank you :)
This is a really lovely post Sara it’s wonderful how we can change so much and still recognise that the person we were before was so important to who we are now, and a very cute picture. xx
Thank you x
Lovely post, so true, we have so much experience to guide our children through their formative years (as long as Monkey doesn’t ask me for help with computers I’ll be fine!)
Thanks Mary x
love this post! great photo you all look so natural and happy xx
Thanks!
Cute photo! The haircuts remind me of my own childhood! It’s lovely to think of all the wisdom we can all pass on to our kids… if they will listen!
Ah, yes – if they will listen! I’m not sure my younger self would have :)
Wow what a heart felt post. We all have a different journey to take and it molds us for when we are parents. I hope some of the things I have pushed to one side from my childhood will help me guide my three around them so they don’t have to experience the same things I did.
Thank you very much. I agree, I want to try and protect them from some things I did, but whether they will listen… I guess sometimes we have to learn from our own mistakes x
I am also rocking the bowl haircut in my picture. I got through childhood and my teenage years by the skin of my teeth, but I definitely learnt from it!
Yeah, we certainly learn a lot! I hope it helps me navigate the teenage years with my lot :)
Ahh such a lovely post. I was painfully shy and I wonder how I ever got through my teens. I’m not even sure I realised it at the time. I had that same hair! It was soooo cool back then wasn’t it? My dad used to trim mine :)
When people say that they’d like to go back to their school days I think, really?!? But, you get through it and it makes you who your are, so I wouldn’t change it. The bowl cut… Height of fashion :)
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A really cute picture. I so remember that hair cut. I could never have it because my hair was way too curly lol. In the days before hair straighteners so no straight hair for me
Well, I also did the dodgy perm thing in my teens! We always want what we don’t have :)
Love the photo’s of the bowl cut! My brother is currently crawling under the table as I put a photo of those short 80’s shorts he went to school in on facebook hahah!
He he! Taste really passed the 80’s by!
Lovely post! And I do remember THAT haircut… ;) xx
He he! Thanks :)
Lovely shot, I used to have exactly the same hairdo ;)))