I’ve been a late bloomer my entire life. I’m the girl who didn’t get her first kiss until junior year of high school. The girl who still hasn’t quite figured out how to talk to guys without sounding like an idiot. I’m the girl who still fits into clothes from 9th grade. I’m the girl who still has creepily intense celebrity crushes and Chris Brown posters on my dorm wall to prove it. I’m the girl who does her homework on Saturday nights. I’m that girl who doesn’t care for partying or alcohol, and stands awkwardly on the wall at every party, wishing I were somewhere else. I’m that girl who just doesn’t seem to fit into any category.
Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong generation. I feel like I should have been around during the time when women acted gentile and proper. When they wore polka dot dresses down to their knees and satin bonnets on their heads. The time when getting to “first base” meant getting a kiss on the cheek at the end of the night. The time when being a “good girl” was considered cool.
Cool girls back then:
Cool girls now:
For a long time I thought that something was wrong with me. I questioned why I wasn’t boy-crazy and why I didn’t like to “turn up” like my friends. There were times when I would try to change myself to fit in with everyone around me. I would go to the parties and pretend that I was having a great time, when all I really wanted to do was go home, cuddle up with my dogs and watch old episodes of “Full House.”
It wasn’t until I started thinking about the things that I liked about myself and stopped wishing that I was someone else that I realized that I am who I’m supposed to be. I’m unique on purpose.
I hope that those reading this can relate and understand that it is okay to be different. In fact, being different is what makes you special. It’s what makes you, you. Everyone grows and evolves at their own pace so it’s pointless to compare yourself to the friends you grew up with or the people around you. Your time is coming… don’t rush it.
Maybe we are like that flower in the field that hasn’t bloomed yet: we just need a little bit more time in the sun. When the time is right, we might just blossom into the most beautiful flower in the garden. And, who knows, maybe all of those early blooming flowers will wish that they had taken things slow, like we did.
Sorry to go all Dr. Phil on you, but I wanted all my late-blooming friends to know that you are not alone. So here’s to the late bloomers: may you take your time and, when it’s time, shine!!