Sister Project - If you could change one thing about yourself...

Linda, Annette, Kathi, Claire - Lake Tahoe 1963

The question posed 20 or so years ago was: 

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?  2019 answers follow

Linda: That depends on the age and stage.

Childhood: I wanted straight toes and tried to correct them with popsicle stick splints.

School years – I sure wished I had nice skin on my legs, and not the bumpy variety I was plagued with.

High School – My biggest complaint was vision – squinting to see the chalkboard and then never wanting to wear my first pair of glasses.

College – Why couldn’t I have had better teeth? I don’t ever remember NOT taking care of them!

Motherhood – This is a no-brainer and has to be “weight!” Always a struggle…

Early Midwest – What happened to my hair when we moved to Iowa is not something I want to describe.

Now – All of the above are still issues, but now I add joint troubles which I’ve battled for over a decade.

My consolation is something Brent told me when he was a little boy: “Just wait for the resurrection, Mom. That’ll fix you up!”

2019: I have had this discussion with myself many many times. And I can never settle on one thing. I wish I had better eyes. I wish I was thin. I wish I had better skin. I wish my toes didn’t curl. I wish I didn’t have stiff joints. I guess I will go with good joints and no arthritis! Now if this question was supposed to be about a quality of character, I would say that I wish I wasn’t such an introvert.

Kathi: Sometimes I think it would be nice to live my life without a blue lip. Just to see what it's like. But there are so many other worse things that it's hard to be too whiny about something like a blue lip (hemangioma is the medical term- an overgrowth of blood vessels.) I also wish I was the size I was at age 19!!

2019: I’d want to change how much of an introvert I am. I’d like to be that happy, friendly soul who greets everyone, can talk to anyone, and loves to socialize. I hardly want to leave my home because I’m so happy and content in my little cocoon. I absolutely crave solitude too, which is the antithesis of the social creature I think I should want to be. I’m happy as I am, but I feel I should want to be different. Does that make any sense?

Claire: I would really like to have more height.  I'm only 5'1", and though it was always cute and adorable growing up being so short, it hasn't helped in my adulthood. I can hardly reach into my kitchen cupboards, I don't see the dust on the mantle or think to clean above the frig. I'm glad my kids didn't get my height, they are more like their dad, taller than me!

2019: My height. Being short used to be cute and adorable but it's not practical anymore. 

Annette: Only one?? Okay, my initial thought was bodily changes but I'll try to appear less superficial and think of something deeper and more profound! Once someone turns on me in any way (even if I find out they said something behind my back) I have a hard time trusting them again in the future. I'm like the proverbial elephant who never forgets. That's not good! I need to change that!

2019: I worry too much about the expectations of others.