This is 16
Long cascading hair
You’ve learned new terminology
-heatless curls
-lymphatic drainage
-contouring
New brands
Edikted (not “addicted”!)
Brandy
Uggs (ugh-ly!)
This is 16
It’s so GenX to use punctuation
Her teachers are so annoying
Sometimes she just hates everybody
and sometimes everybody hates her.
Size 7 feet
Hands that can wield a makeup brush like a master
Rolling-eye and sarcasm expert
Tries to make jokes, that fall flat
They crack her up anyway
This is 16
Learning to drive
Doesn't know how to parallel park
Doesn't hear you. Hears every word when you’re talking to your best friend on the phone.
Or to your husband (about her)
Loves to talk about her day
Stops in the middle of a sentence
when she realizes it's TMI
This is 16
Dramatic. Independent. Opinionated.
Loves to loll in her bed
in her messy room
clothes and makeup everywhere
She needs you
except when she doesn’t
and she is “over stimulated” and can’t bear you being close
This is 16
Sometimes she is a social butterfly
and sometimes she has social anxiety
She needs things to be aesthetic
She can tell at a glance that you made an ugly PowerPoint
She always smells amazing
Sometimes you shower in her bathroom because she has better products than you do
This is 16
Graceful. Radiantly beautiful.
She scrolls through her phone on the couch
For a second you see a glimpse of the little girl she used to be, glasses and all.
You insist on showing her old baby pictures
and she smiles tolerantly
This is 16
More dazzling and complicated than you ever imagined it would be.
Those playground squabbles and make-believe games?
You smile at how simple it seemed then
What you thought they were testing your patience and your resolve,
that was just some limbering up
for what’s coming
In 2 years she will spread her wings
You push that thought away
For now
it is enough that she wants to cuddle up with you before you go to sleep
(you always go to bed before her)
That she usually wants to watch a rom-com with you on the weekend
that you can both groove to Hamilton and Mamma Mia
and you can both cite every dialogue from Notting Hill
For now, it is enough
That she likes to shop with you
and sit alongside on the floor at Barnes and Noble
nose deep in a book
That you change her sheets every week even though you scold her for not doing it
That you can still make her favorite vodka pasta
That she still sends you a text that just says
mummmmmaaaaa
This is 16.
This is magnificent.