A Sweet Sixteen Story

As many of you know, I work with youth with disabilities as part of my job.  Today is the sixteenth birthday of an amazingly strong, sweet, kind spirited young woman who is starting her life in high school.  Her name is Erica. 

When I read that it was her birthday, I was reminded of my own sixteenth birthday.  I thought I'd share a small story:

Thressa and me, circa 1991, both of us sixteen.

I was very slow to be interested in boys or romantic relationships at all and I was kind of a weird girl (can you imagine?! :) so not a lot of boys were interested in me anyway.  SO, I was sixteen years old and I had never had a kiss yet.  Well, there is a famous phrase, which I'm sure you've heard: "Sweet sixteen and never been kissed".  Well of course its just a phrase.  But I was sixteen and had never been kissed; it was a coincidence.  Anyway, I was hanging out at my best friend Thressa's house on the day of my 16th and her dad said to me, "Oh! It's your birthday! Sweet sixteen and never been kissed!"

Now, I had not told very many people this fact about me because I found it kind of embarrassing. But of course who else knows such a thing about a person than a person's best friend.  But when Thressa's dad said that--just as a phrase mind you, Thressa, (who apparently did not know it was just a phrase), yelled out "How did you KNOW?!!!"

I was mortified.  Her dad started laughing and I covered my face with my hands. "Oh Thressa!" I said mournfully, "It's just a PHRASE!"  Well, she couldn't stop laughing!

So, happy Birthday to Erica and for your reading pleasure, below is the link to Erica's story on Caringbridge.com 

Erica's story