What I’ve Learned
Esquire
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Brigid Dowling
16, Student, Philadelphia
Pedicures are my best friend. They prevent in-grown toenails and painful surgeries. Not to mention they make your feet look beautiful.
I always procrastinate. I realized that life is too short and there aren’t enough hours in the day to push back work. I just wish I would take my own advice and stop putting things off.
I should’ve got my permit on my sixteenth birthday; now I just sob about all the things I could be doing with a car. I only have less than a month until I finally get my license, but it’s embarrassing when you have to get driven everywhere by your dad.
I still use floppy disks, which is probably not a good idea. By the end of the year, I have no clue what information is on what floppy disk. Most of the time the disks get crushed in my school bag, or fall apart; my favorite part is when they get stuck in the computers at school because the drive probably hasn’t been used for 20 years before I try to use it. I finally decided that it’s probably a good idea to move on to another method of saving information on the computer, so I bought a USB and haven’t used it once. I guess I’ll always resort to floppy disks; I don’t know what I’d do with out them.
There’s no point in going to the movie theater anymore. It cost nine dollars to see, when you could just wait until it is available in stores to watch. You could save five dollars by renting instead, or maybe even save nine if you’re lucky enough to get the movie as a gift. Plus, you have the luxury of making your own popcorn, which would save you about another 8 dollars, and you won’t have to worry about rides, because all you have to do is take a few steps and plop down on the couch.
It’s ok to take chances and try new things. Some people might not be too happy with your decisions, but in the long run, you’re the only person who will have to live with the choices you make.
My brothers are my best friends. The more we go through together, the closer we become.
I love shoes, except there are to many to choose from and not enough that I like.
The Spice Girls may have been cool, but excluding your friends from the Spice Girls’ Club was not.
I love music. It’s awesome. The people who make it are genius. I don’t know what I would do if I had to listen to myself sing instead; that is just a scary thought in itself. I love listening to music to get pumped up for a big game, during a long car ride, when I’m bored, or when I go for a run. It comes to great use when you’re trying to ignore your parents, or let someone know you don’t feel like listening to them anymore; all you have to do is turn up the volume and listen to the beat.
I need a job; I have no money.
I loose everything; there are no words to describe my lack of responsibility. I could be holding something in my hands and a few seconds later I will realize that I must of dropped it.
I like to sleep. I want there to be one day where I can come home, do all my homework, I mean every single assignment that was assigned to me, eat a delicious dinner, sit on the sofa and watch a few shows, and then around nine-thirty just go to bed. I don’t want to have to worry about waking up at five o’clock in the morning to read my history textbook, or going into school early because I forgot a book. I want to be able to go to bed early, not worry about anything, relax, and enjoy the very rare hours that my life comes to a stop. It must be nice to wake up after a solid nine-hour sleep and feel energized and stress-free.
I have no patience at all.
Nothing in the dollar store costs a dollar anymore. It has already beaten out prices at the five and ten, now I’m just waiting for them to get some UGGS and a few Northfaces in stock.
Spandex is a weird thing to wear.
I need to get confidence and a new work ethic.
People have different religions other than Catholic. I went to a Catholic grade school from kindergarten to eighth grade. I always was around people who had the same beliefs as me. Going to Penn Charter really made me realize that there are all different kinds of people, I was just never exposed to them before. It’s so weird when you talk about something that relates to your religion and people don’t understand you. I always thought Catholicism was the only religion. I think it has been a good experience to grow and learn about all these different things I never knew before.
The lower school children at lunch are mean.
You can make new friends everyday of your life. I didn’t even know my two best friends two years ago. We just started talking and acted like we knew each other our whole lives.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.
I’m not much of a big talker. I don’t know why this is; it’s just the way I am. I don’t talk in school that much, and believe it or not I’m not much of a phone talker either.
