‘Love Letters‘ is a Petal + Sass blog feature that regularly asks a group of diverse women in their late 20’s and early 30’s about their experiences with health, sex, emotional wellness, body image, college, careers – and what they wish they had known themselves as teenagers.
View the letters here, and meet the ‘Love Letters’ contributors below:
‘Love Letters’ Contributors:
Miss CallaLily
Miss CallaLily (20-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be? Yoko Ono
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Bacon Egg Cheese on a Hamburger with infinite ketchup.
3. Birth Control of Choice: Mirena IUD
4. Dream Job: Founder and CEO of my own profitable tech start-up. (I am all of this except one little baby word.)
5. Favorite Book: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins was an important one.
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
You do not know how.
Or what. Or when. It’s ok.
I promise you will.
Or what. Or when. It’s ok.
I promise you will.
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: Kindness and goodness are the most epic forms of badassery. Find good and kind people, and ask them to be your friends. Remind yourself what is important to you on the regular, this will help you know what you want when the time comes. Your thighs are not nearly as big as you think they are.
Miss Bluebells
Miss Bluebells (30-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be? Judy Blume.
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Sushi with extra wasabi & pickled ginger and a side of nachos with hot orange cheese.
3. Birth Control of Choice: NuvaRing.
4. Dream Job: Casting Director.
5. Favorite Book: Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
The world is an egg
we all hatch at the same time;
It is always now.
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: Your hair will work itself out if you stop blow drying it. You are actually beautiful. Always be kind.
Miss Rosebud
Miss Rosebud (30-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be?Henry Kissinger.
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Mmmm… a very strong margarita, stinky cheese on bread, a damn fine steak and mashed potatoes, and a huge pizza box full of fried dough (accompanied by my second margarita).
3. Birth Control of Choice:Fertility Awareness.
4. Dream Job: Travel photographer (high end so I could stay in nice hotels, though).
5. Favorite Book:East of Eden, John Steinbeck. And 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami has been my favorite in recent memory.
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
Good grief, please calm down
No one cares as much as you
Just do what you want.
No one cares as much as you
Just do what you want.
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: See Haiku.
Miss Magnolia
Miss Magnolia (30-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be? Frida Kahlo or Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Chicken wings.
3. Birth Control of Choice: IUD.
4. Dream Job: Working for Doctors without Borders or a refugee center.
5. Favorite Book: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, mostly because it’s one of the few I finished.
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
I care not greatly
Should the world remember me
In some tomorrow.
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: Everyone is struggling and nothing is that important. Stay true, it’ll get better once you’re out.
Miss Hydrangea
Miss Hydrangea (30-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be? Wait…I’m not famous?
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Thanksgiving Dinner (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, ocean spray cranberry sauce)
3. Birth Control of Choice: Diaphragm … But that’s cause it seems cool in movies.
4. Dream Job: Journalist/best selling author
5. Favorite Book: Any book that I am currently reading/reading
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
You never knew me,
Nor I you, but love you, I
Did, with my last breath
Nor I you, but love you, I
Did, with my last breath
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: The “master plan” only works if you both realize your worth. He never will.
Miss Peony
Miss Peony (20-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be? Jane Austen
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Definitly a corndog. Yum.
3. Birth Control of Choice: IUD
4. Dream Job: I’d love to unplug, if I ever got the courage, from capitalism. I think the best job would be creating a family-sustaining homestead and raising my children there.
5. Favorite Book: Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
Within our hard shells
We are soft like cheese or, mud.
Explode and spatter.
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: You have to live with yourself. Nobody else does. So put all that energy you spend into making other people like you, and put it into making sure that you like you.
Miss Lilac
Miss Lilac (30-something)
1. What famous person from history would you be? Oh man, history was my worst subject. I’m going to skip right over this and keep being me.
2. Last Meal on Death Row: Chicken fingers—but the fancy kind with flecks of pepper in them—and waffle fries. I don’t think there’s a limit on how many waffle fries I can eat, so I think it would extend my life a little bit.
3. Birth Control of Choice: No birth control. My tummy bulge thanks me, and so do my boobs. And so does my pre-period ‘sadsplosion’.
4. Dream Job: I honestly would probably have a couple different jobs cobbled into one because I’m terrible at making up my mind and have a lot of interests. I would write about intersections of pop culture and society. I would get paid to go to peruse music blogs in hot pursuit of new acts and go to concerts (I’d be happy to write about them too!). I would teach a course on community development and urban policy (with a focus on education). I would spearhead a movement against real pants in the workplace for all womenkind.
5. Favorite Book: Eeks. Too many! I just read The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield and it was totally awesome.
6. General outlook on life in Haiku format:
Always wearing hoops
Dance harder than everyone
Look. And listen too.
7. The most vital thing you’d tell yourself if you could go back to freshman year of high school: Don’t get pigeonholed. So often in high school (and in life, really) we feel like we can only subscribe to one group or label. Chances are, you’ll want to do a whole bunch of things and hang out with a whole bunch of people, do it. Don’t be nervous you’ll miss out on the best _____ ever by spreading yourself around; trust, instead, that you’ll make yourself more interesting. Be an athlete, a thinker, a mover, a shaker, an observer. Be unapologetically you. People will love you. More importantly, you’ll love you.
Check back regularly for more contributor profiles and read their letters here.
Petal + Sass 