Live Laugh Love: 17 Again!

Have you ever had the desire to be 17 again, maybe just for a few days? The thought enters my head once in a while when I think of things like dances, flirting, the excitement of getting ready for a date, catching the eye of the cutest boy in the room, endless phone calls or conversations with friends and cute boys (What in the world did we do without texting? We had to resort to actual human interaction. Go figure), going to football games, picking out the perfect outfit to wear to a dance...hoping to be noticed by the cute boys (well, I still like picking out the perfect outfit, just not as much to choose from), eating anything I wanted, feeling like my life was just beginning, and the feeling of holding hands for the first time, or a first kiss. Whew...sounds pretty fun and exciting...huh. But then...I remember the other side of things... the heartbreak I felt when the boy of my dreams didn't exactly feel the same way as I did, or the insecurities I felt about myself that sometimes stopped me from talking to certain boys, or even certain girls. The endless girl drama that seemed to follow particular friends, or feeling like I didn't know what I was going to do with my future, or what i was going to do with my hair, or wondering if I would be the only girl that wouldn't get asked to dance, or the feeling of a Friday night without a date, or feeling like no one understood my problems. Once I remember that side of the coin, I realize that as much fun as it was to be young (and I did have fun)...I am okay having "been there, done that".

But this past week-end I did get the second best thing to being young. I got to hang out with "the young". I got to chaperon a youth retreat for the 16 and 17 year old kids from our church. It was a stake event, so the girls were excited to get to know the boys from the other wards (that's what's it's all about when you are that age. New boys). We went to a youth camp that the church owns here, and it was kind of a camping sort of thing, though we did have bunk houses. The weather (which at this time of year can be a little cold), was perfect and the kids had a great time. I especially loved being with the girls from my ward (Savannah, Savannah, Sara, Sara, Christina and Brittany). Kinsey was not able to come because she is not quite 16 yet, and so this was an opportunity for me to be a "leader", and not a "leader/friends mom". The girls opened up to me and we had so much fun talking, laughing...and searching for cute boys. I made them each pick a boy they wanted to get to know, and I pretty much tried to find opportunities for them to do that the rest of the time. (I had to force some more than others). You would think this would be a piece of cake...but all that "human interaction" was so hard for this texting generation. The girls gave out "camp names" at the end of the two days, and my name was "17 Again".