Dear Teen Me, from Author Amanda Usen
Dear Mandy,
You win the Womens National Muzzleloading Skeet Championship when you are fifteen. Treasure this moment with your father.
You will always have a soft spot for bad boys…and that’s okay. All those failures-to-save will come in handy when you begin to write novels. (Did I just blow your mind?) You will write a book! Two, actually, so don’t bother going pre-med in college. By the time you’re thirty, the thought of blood will make you feel squishy inside. Plus calc and chem will ruin your cumulative average. Just declare creative writing as your major, and get it over with. Since no one will tell you this in your fiction writing classes, you should write mainstream romance. Yes, I know it isn’t considered literary, but you love it. Judith Krantz. Anne McCaffrey. All those Harlequins and Loveswepts you hide in your extra-large purse? Give it some thought.
You don’t get the guy in the hayloft this night…but you do write a hot hayloft scene for SCRUMPTIOUS. Cold comfort, I know.
This is a little off subject and after you drink all that tequila in college you might forget, but read up on the symptoms of post-partum hemorrhage before you have your first child. And, since you weren’t paying attention the first time, read up again before your third. When you think you are bleeding to death, you are. Be a little more assertive, for crying out loud. Which brings me to something I want you to know, something that will bring you nothing but good, something that won’t change your life by taking away the good that the bad stuff brings with it – pursue your own interests. Seriously. Don’t be shy – go for it! YOUR interests. Pretending to be interested in the things all those bad boys are interested in only puts you on your knees. Don’t sit by the phone. Don’t go looking for them at bars or libraries. Do your own thing. Passionately. He’ll call back if you’re not home – I promise.
Don’t worry, baking will be easier when you become a pastry chef!
Remember Ursuline’s motto? Never mind, I know you do, because I do. Not for school, but for life, we learn. It’s true. So true. The things you put your time into are worth it, not for the grade or the hourly wage, but for the experience and the way they improve you or the world. Your procrastination is born out of fear. Fear that you will fail or not live up to expectations. Any chance you can shake off that nonsense a little earlier? Everybody fails. Nobody meets the mark every time. And some of those people you are trying to please aren’t worth the effort. But you are. Do it for yourself.
By the time you meet your sheep in wolf’s clothing, you’ll have enough sense to recognize him, so make sure you get your butt to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY in October of 1996. Keep your eyes peeled for the guy with the ice-blue eyes and the astonishing shoulders. He’s your hero. He will cook for you and you will begin your happily ever after. See you there!
Love,
Amanda
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Amanda, don’t shave your head until AFTER you get back from Central America. It’s embarrassing to be mistaken for a man everywhere you go.
Amanda Usen knows two things for certain: chocolate cheesecake is good for breakfast and a hot chef can steal your heart. Her husband stole hers the first day of class at the Culinary Institute of America – so she married him after graduation in a lovely French Quarter restaurant in New Orleans. They spent a few years enjoying the food and the fun in the Big Easy before they returned to Western New York to raise a family. Amanda spends her days teaching pastry arts classes and her nights writing romance. If she isn’t baking or writing, she can usually be found chasing the kids around the yard with her very own scrumptious husband. Visit her at http://amandausen.wordpress.com if you’d like to chat about romance, writing or recipes.
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Amanda ~ this is awesome. If only we could learn life lessons earlier in life, but sometimes we have to walk through things for the lesson to stick.
Skeet shooter, huh?
Yup – pull! Ah, those life lessons take some time to sink in, but then they make great material for novels.
I enjoyed this so much I am going out to buy Scrumptious! I remember when you made your own leather jeans. And you could shoot a gun. And carried a dictionary in your giant purse. I was impressed then, I am impressed now! XO, Susan.
Susan, you were always one of my big sister’s coolest friends. Thank you so much – I hope you enjoy Scrumptious!