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this is not as awesome as a kate beaton comic, though
Re: this awesome thread about what some of us were like when we were ten, I thought it was time to make a Younger Self Post! I occasionally forget that I'm not still twelve or so, and then I think about what I was like as a child, and ... it's not like anything has changed that much, and I have mostly just experienced absurdity drift instead of an actual decrease of absurdity, but it is still pretty great to think about my younger self.
I would, by the way, love to spark a Younger Selves Post meme, except I don't have a catchy pithy way to tell you what to post! Mine is just a bunch of jumbled facts + some hilarious childhood pictures. Do what you will!
I sort of wish I had my childhood diaries on hand, because some pretty great stuff went into them. I always introduced myself at the beginning of them, though, and the salient facts of Who I Was remained fairly constant. They were:
1. I loved to rollerblade! (This was especially important, because I hated most organized/team sports, and vaguely knew what a loser I was for not being into something active. I really did love to rollerblade, though.)
2. I loved horses! (I know there are plenty of little girls who did not go through the horse-loving phase. I was not one of them. I LOVED HORSES.)
3. I ... had run out of typical things to put in a diary, so HERE'S A LIST OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS. Narnia, Edward Eager's Half Magic series, and Gail Carson Levine novels were probably the constants on that list.
I don't think I ever committed my love of Lord of the Rings to paper, though. They were too important. I think if I'd ever run into another ten-year-old who'd read Lord of the Rings, I would have died on the spot and maybe loved them forever.
The other thing I never committed to paper was that I really believed in magic. I spent a lot of time contemplating what I would wish for, and how to phrase it so I wouldn't get in a lot of trouble, if I came across some kind of magical artifact. I spent a lot of time looking for doorways to other worlds -- I wasn't particularly wedded to Narnia specifically, although I think that's more or less what I had in mind. I had a brief phase where I was convinced I had telekinetic abilities (and I even knew how to say 'telekinesis' although I had no idea how to spell it), and another brief phase when I was hoping really hard I would get my Hogwarts letter, although that sort of segued into the part where I was forging Hogwarts acceptance letters and sending them to my friends, and buying the early movie merch so that I could write a diary about how I was a Gryffindor firstie during Chamber of Secrets.
I had an ever-more-elaborate game with a friend in which I was a lady knight a la Alanna and we would roam the land in search of adventure, although, even though the land in question was called Tortall, it had a lot more in common with the mythological jigsaw landscape of Xena, complete with poached Greek gods. (I totally went through a brief goddess-worship phase then. I had an altar to Athena in my bedroom! Oh man, I'd totally forgotten that until now.) I later had an even more elaborate game, by myself, that I was Galadriel's daughter (obviously I hadn't read all the Appendices yet) and was BFFs with Frodo, and we and the other hobbits hooked up with Faramir's kid and Aragorn's kid and we all went on a harrowing adventure to Mordor! I have no idea what that was about, but it was great.
Then I discovered the internet, and let me tell you, I am hugely glad that I did a lot of reading to get the tone before I tried to commit any fic of my own.
Let me distract you from that absurdity with ... more absurdity, this time in pictures!
Photographic evidence of my short-lived ballet career, my huge unreasonable love of Disney's Little Mermaid, and, uh ... my inability to move without sticking my tongue out? IDK, I was four.
I liked to dance in the rain! (Why yes, this picture is my default icon. :D)
I was a super classy witch! Fun fact: I later confiscated that broomstick, painted SHOOTING STAR on the handle, and kept it in my room on the offchance that it would one day actually start flying.
And sometimes I would go to Canada! I am not sure this strictly counts as a childhood picture the way the others do, because my Teenage Internet Phase started only a little after I started wearing glasses, but ... look, my urge to write lots of due South fic about adventures in the Great White Nowhere probably started with this beautiful piece of southern Alberta, so I thought I'd present the documentary evidence.
And that's about it! I showed you my hilarious four-year-old ballet pictures; you show me yours. :D
I would, by the way, love to spark a Younger Selves Post meme, except I don't have a catchy pithy way to tell you what to post! Mine is just a bunch of jumbled facts + some hilarious childhood pictures. Do what you will!
I sort of wish I had my childhood diaries on hand, because some pretty great stuff went into them. I always introduced myself at the beginning of them, though, and the salient facts of Who I Was remained fairly constant. They were:
1. I loved to rollerblade! (This was especially important, because I hated most organized/team sports, and vaguely knew what a loser I was for not being into something active. I really did love to rollerblade, though.)
2. I loved horses! (I know there are plenty of little girls who did not go through the horse-loving phase. I was not one of them. I LOVED HORSES.)
3. I ... had run out of typical things to put in a diary, so HERE'S A LIST OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS. Narnia, Edward Eager's Half Magic series, and Gail Carson Levine novels were probably the constants on that list.
I don't think I ever committed my love of Lord of the Rings to paper, though. They were too important. I think if I'd ever run into another ten-year-old who'd read Lord of the Rings, I would have died on the spot and maybe loved them forever.
The other thing I never committed to paper was that I really believed in magic. I spent a lot of time contemplating what I would wish for, and how to phrase it so I wouldn't get in a lot of trouble, if I came across some kind of magical artifact. I spent a lot of time looking for doorways to other worlds -- I wasn't particularly wedded to Narnia specifically, although I think that's more or less what I had in mind. I had a brief phase where I was convinced I had telekinetic abilities (and I even knew how to say 'telekinesis' although I had no idea how to spell it), and another brief phase when I was hoping really hard I would get my Hogwarts letter, although that sort of segued into the part where I was forging Hogwarts acceptance letters and sending them to my friends, and buying the early movie merch so that I could write a diary about how I was a Gryffindor firstie during Chamber of Secrets.
I had an ever-more-elaborate game with a friend in which I was a lady knight a la Alanna and we would roam the land in search of adventure, although, even though the land in question was called Tortall, it had a lot more in common with the mythological jigsaw landscape of Xena, complete with poached Greek gods. (I totally went through a brief goddess-worship phase then. I had an altar to Athena in my bedroom! Oh man, I'd totally forgotten that until now.) I later had an even more elaborate game, by myself, that I was Galadriel's daughter (obviously I hadn't read all the Appendices yet) and was BFFs with Frodo, and we and the other hobbits hooked up with Faramir's kid and Aragorn's kid and we all went on a harrowing adventure to Mordor! I have no idea what that was about, but it was great.
Then I discovered the internet, and let me tell you, I am hugely glad that I did a lot of reading to get the tone before I tried to commit any fic of my own.
Let me distract you from that absurdity with ... more absurdity, this time in pictures!
Photographic evidence of my short-lived ballet career, my huge unreasonable love of Disney's Little Mermaid, and, uh ... my inability to move without sticking my tongue out? IDK, I was four.
I liked to dance in the rain! (Why yes, this picture is my default icon. :D)
I was a super classy witch! Fun fact: I later confiscated that broomstick, painted SHOOTING STAR on the handle, and kept it in my room on the offchance that it would one day actually start flying.
And sometimes I would go to Canada! I am not sure this strictly counts as a childhood picture the way the others do, because my Teenage Internet Phase started only a little after I started wearing glasses, but ... look, my urge to write lots of due South fic about adventures in the Great White Nowhere probably started with this beautiful piece of southern Alberta, so I thought I'd present the documentary evidence.
And that's about it! I showed you my hilarious four-year-old ballet pictures; you show me yours. :D
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I posted childhood pics before, but I think the most relevant for this post are:
Dressed as a bear:
Everyone from the USSR has at least one picture like this:
Dressed as Snegurochka for Novi God with my cousin the Musketeer:
School uniforms!
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You dressed as a bear = precious beyond words.
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Also they still actually wear almost exactly the same uniforms at my old school. The boys wear tiny suits and ties and belts.
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I swear I have one around here of me at 4, where my green hoodie that was green and had cloth ridges. So that it was a dinosaur/dragon costume. It said on the front, "MONSTER FOR SALE (or rent!)" I loved that thing. It got worn many times that were not Halloween.
I was considering trying to get or make a new monset hoodie. Like, yesterday.
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I showed you my hilarious four-year-old ballet pictures; you show me yours. :D
Oh, I think I have to do this. As soon as I scan in some of them. (I think my ballet pictures are actually "hilarious six-year-old ballet pictures," but whatever.) My post is going to be less narrative, though, because I basically have very few memories of life before approximately age eleven. Elementary school is a long blur of dance-girl scouts-Babysitter's Club books-academics-social awkwardness.
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Hilarious four-year-old ballet pictures, hilarious six-year-old ballet pictures, it is all good! And I understand that I have a weirdly vivid memory of my childhood in comparison to a lot of my friends, so pictures without details are sensemaking! (Oh my god, the Babysitter's Club. I think I read about twenty of them and then got bored out of my mind. XD)
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Ten-year-old me would totally have been your soulmate!
Hmm, I'm not sure I have any digital childhood pictures (my parents did not have digital cameras back then) but I'll look around. Anyway, I was a geeky kid. I was interested in: mythology (any kind, apparently), geology, making my own language, astronomy (I learned the names of the stars and constellations), making bows and arrows and spears in the forest (and using them), dinosaurs, and lots of other things.
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If you have a scanner and an old photo album you should be set! That's actually where my childhood pictures come from; I don't think my parents got a digital camera until after I was out of the house. :)
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I love (and still do!) horses, but I was lucky enough ro live in a place where I actually was able to ride almost every weekend. And yes, I too spent a lot of time looking for the perfect wording in case some magical being showed-up at my door.
You look lovely in all those costumes!!!
I don't have ballet pictures. But I did a post with childhood pics a long time ago (it's here, if you are interested), for the happiness meme. Because I was really lucky, and I did enjoy a lot my childhood. Looks like you did, too *g*
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I was lucky enough to live in a place where I was able to ride most weekends too! I think I gave my poor mother hives from worry that I was going to have some horse-related accident.
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I have no hilarious ballet pictures, but I do have hilarious pictures of 3-year-old me in a polka-dotted swimsuit with a (green, I think) frill, because I apparently went through a phase where I refused to wear anything but a swimsuit.
Also: your hair! You were so...blond! My hair was approximately that blond when I was a small child. I don't know what happened.
Thirdly: That is most awesome that your default icon comes from a picture of YOU. I had no idea. Most sneaky of you. :)
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I was SO BLONDE. Then I hit puberty and my hair abruptly went brown and curled. :D
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(Anonymous) 2010-09-26 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)I still remember the conversation:
Her: What are you readin, J.?
Me: Romeo & Juliet.
Her: ... Excuse me?!
Me: Romeo & Juliet. It's from a guy called... uh... Shakes... something... dunno how to read it. (remember, I'm german).
Her: ... DARLING???!!!
My father: Yes??? What is it?
Her: Your daughter is reading Shakespeare. Start saving, we need to get her into college.
My father: Damn.
Me: What?
Oh, and I still love rollerblading XD
And I read LotR in english for the first time when I was 11 *coughs*
PS: This is Caliena from Lj. Don't have an account here...
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(Anonymous) 2010-09-26 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)I read it in German when I was 11.
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Anyway, this is SMALL NAI.
Poor quality is poor quality, but it proves that I am EXACTLY THE SAME.
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HAHA YOU LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME, OH LOL. ILU. <3
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Also, I just found a few more:
Hurray :'>
In any case, I was a huge scaredy cat, I had a small horse phase (but mostly a dinosaur phase), and I planned musicals for my friends and I to perform. Oh, childhood.
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fourseven-year-old ballet pictures, except they only exist in my parents' photo albums. I shall have to simply go tell pictureless hilarious stories about my younger self, because this should totally be a meme.Also, wow, I kind of always assumed your default icon was of you, but I thought it was of a rather more CURRENT you. Seeing such a young head on that familiar cheerful dancing figure is super-disconcerting!
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I am sorry my default icon is suddenly so disconcerting! I am, however, amused that you are apparently the only one who assumed it was a photo of me.
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Good heavens! I spent the goodly portion of a year looking for Narnia, until one day my father had to take me aside and have a Serious Discussion about why we know narnia isn't real, right? Thankfully I had to prudence, at the time, not to mention to him that I also belive that with sufficent concentration, I could telekinetically levitate myself off the floor. (I later traced that particular belief back to a series of vidid dreams wherin I had the ability to do just that. All I cna say is, I'm glad I never dreamed that I could fly by jumping from great heights.)
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I never told my parents I was looking for Narnia, probably because I really didn't want to have that discussion.
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I never told my parents I was looking for Narnia.
I think I was just excessivly honest with my parents in general..
"Essie? What're you doing in the closet?"
"Lookin' for Narnia."
"..."
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When I was eleven, though, that was when my friends and I obsessively played Hogan's Heroes. I was Newkirk. IDEK!
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The only picture I have on my computer of me at a young age is one that my cousin posted on facebook- this was a visit to Florida, and I'm the one on the right in the leopard-print shades. I even believe they were fuzzy.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=4796701&fbid=429301828323&op=2&o=global&view=global&subj=826706876&id=844583323
(I realised I have no idea how to put a picture in a comment as other people have done. Dur.)
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My opinion has not really changed.
When I was eight, I was trying actively to BE a witch. And I had a grimoire in the form of a notebook. My best friend was also a witch, though she was much better at it than I was.
When I was nine (and still trying to be a witch), I discovered Narnia. This was also about the time that I heard about people like Dorothy Arnold and Judge Crater disappearing without a trace. I figured that they couldn't just disappear; they had to have gone somewhere. Maybe they hadn't left any bodies because there were no bodies to leave. Maybe they weren't dead, just somewhere else--a different time or place or dimension.
My reaction? To immediately start looking for doorways to different dimensions everywhere I could. The fact that I was not finding them did not convince me that the doorways were not there; it merely told me that I was not finding them. After all, given the size of the universe, coupled with the fact that the doorways were not always there---well, it stood to reason that I'd be having a hard time finding the doors, didn't it? It wasn't as if I had a Dimensional Doorway Detector in my hot little hands. (Though it did occur to me that this was a grave oversight on the universe's part.)
I do not have any pictures of me online and I do not have a scanner. Just picture a short skinny little girl with a Dutch boy haircut and a yellow-and-green striped top. ("See that picture? That was me/ Grass-stained shirt and dusty knee.")