Teen Thursday: Do Over Day

Come on, you have one, right?

A day you would do over if you could?

Oh yeah, this is going to be good!!

Check out this great video where some of our own contemporary authors answered the question: If I could do over one day from my teenage years, it would be the day...



We'd love to hear from you in the comments about what day you would do over! To get us started, a few more members of The Contemps weighed in with a textual response:

Kristen Tracy - A day I would live over and change: Pig Slaughter Sleepover. Here's the story. Once, I agreed to go to a sleepover at a friend's house, and in the back of my mind I sort of thought maybe I shouldn't go, but I went and that night their massively huge pig had a heart attack and died. My friend had to go and help cut its throat in order to drain the blood from the meat (Americans prefer the taste of meat without blood in it) and their pig had just had piglets, and so I remember being asked to come outside and hold a squealing pig while they butchered the dead mother pig. I recall really really wishing I wasn't at this sleepover, and sort of sondering whether or not I'd ever be able to eat bacon or ham again. I am still haunted by this sleepover. I think it's the last one I ever attended. And the squeal of a pig brings it all back.

Sara Bennett Wealer - The day I would most likely do over is the day I decided I *had* to be popular. It sounds like a bad 80s movie, but I remember literally making that decision, and then working to get in with the "in" crowd. I did get in, but it never felt quite right. First, I ditched many of my old friends, which hurt peoples' feelings and was, overall, a sucky thing to do. Second, the popular kids already had their own friends. They weren't mean or anything, but they'd all known each other for years and I was a newcomer. I did some things I wasn't proud of to impress them - things I probably didn't need to do, and ultimately I wound up on my own. It was sort of a mutual decision and no big tragedy, but what does bug me is wondering how things might have been if I'd just let them develop naturally. In the end, I had a small group of friends with whom I was happy. But I always wished I'd been a better friend to the people who knew and liked me before I decided I had to be an "it" girl.

Denise Jaden - If I could do one day over, it would be an absolutely horrible singing audition I did in 11th grade. I can't sing. I should have known better. Rather than thoroughly embarrassing myself in front of all the popular kids who could sing, if I could do it over again, I would just go to the acting and dancing auditions for sure.

Okay, ready, set, go - your turn, in the comments!!

11 comments:

Claire Dawn said...

I try not to do regrets.

But if I could do over one day, I would probably choose not to walk with my older guy friend when I was 13, because people who saw us thought there was something more and I got a bad reputation :(

Lydia Sharp said...

There was one day I remember clearly that I committed the ultimate no-no for a teen girl: I wore white pants while on my period.

'Nuff said.

Melissa Walker said...

I love these overshares! The pig butchering night is something I won't soon get out of my mind, Kristen. Yikes.

I always feel like you don't regret the things you DO do, just the things you don't. But maybe I'm wrong, hearing some of these!

And I LOVE the song on the video!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone remember "Say Anything" from that teen magazine we all read? I have a feeling these comments are going to be like that!

I'd actually do over a great day -- I was 18 and visiting England with some of my classmates & my senior English teacher. We were at a motel for the night (in Brighton?)and I was having a real heart-to-heart with my best guy friend.

And then we kissed. And kissed and kissed and kissed. I remember telling him, "I've waited 4 years for this," and he looked so elated.

He turned out to be a jerk, but it was still one of the hottest/sweetest episodes in my life.

Micol Ostow said...

Oh, lord. Bad enough that I got my hair SPIRAL PERMED, but also? Paid a FORTUNE to look like I had a head full of corkscrew pasta. Why? WHY?

Sarah said...

I really enjoyed high school and while I'm glad to be out of it, I don't have too many regrets about it. I do regret not taking a journalism internship offered my journalism professor in 9th grade however. It was at the University of Minnesota, a very good journalism school, and well, who knows what that may have done for me as a writer.

HiddenWriter. said...

I'd do over the day my friends and I planned to shop in a mall nearby all day, but ended up in a different city, trying to rescue one of my friend's mother from a 'mouse attack'. Yes, we travelled miles just for that. Good times.

I'm a young writer trying to improve my skills through a blog, check it out here if you have time:
www.thewritingaddiction.blogspot.com

:)

Mrs. DeRaps said...

Wow. This is an interesting question. I've actually been thinking about this all day, wondering if there was one day that I would "do over" because something embarrassing and/or terrible happened. I've thought and thought, and can't come up with anything. So, I am going to say that I'd have a "do over" of a great day--Just so that I could experience it again.

I'd choose the one where I bicycled at the back Bay Cove this summer, had a great lunch, and then went to an awesome end-of-summer BBQ/ bonfire at a friend's house. That was a great day indeed!

Mindi Scott said...

Mrs. DeRaps: That is such a great spin on it! My mind automatically went to awful stuff.

Sarah Darer Littman said...

The biggest irony about my do-over day? I had my whole family over for a barbecue last weekend, including my younger sister - you know, the one I left at home alone so I could go "A Clockwork Orange" - and I was telling them about this video and how I still felt guilty about what I'd done all these years later. My sister didn't even REMEMBER it! But my mom was like, "WHAT?! You left her ALONE?!"

Mindi Scott said...

Over at my blog, I elaborated on my Do Over Day that I spoke of on the video: http://mindiscott.livejournal.com/164751.html

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