In a cute interview with the cute Katie Perry, Perry has a very cute response to a question from a Times reporter.
What would her 15-year-old-self, the one whose teenage dream it was to be a gospel star, think of her life now?
“I think the 15-year-old me would be excited and flabbergasted,” Ms. Perry said, “and also say, ‘Put on some clothes.’ ”
My 15-year old self would scream, "how did you turn into Mom? And what's that stuff on the bottom of your arm that wags when you wave?" There would be lots of retching noises about living in the suburbs and having kids.
But then I would tell my 15-year old self to buzz off, because she thinks that cut-off sweatshirts and day-glo green are cool.
Question of the Day: What would your 15-year old self say about your life?
Apt. 11d 
1. She wouldn’t like how fat I am and she might make me go shopping to break out of the knit pants/polo shirt rut.
2. She wouldn’t like that I’m not doing something with my Russian.
3. She would be very pleased with the places I’ve lived, the people I’ve known, the degrees I’ve gotten and the things I’ve done. She’d be relieved that I’d (we’d) met a great guy, gotten married and had children and she’d be happy that I am so well off.
4. She’d like my book collection, and wonder why I wasn’t using it more. What is this internet thing, anyway?
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She’d be fairly impressed with the things I’ve done and the fact I’m still friends with my high school pals. She’d be a little surprised at how cool my parents turned out to be. And she’d be depressed that, as she suspected, the consolations of nice, well-meaning adults – telling her her love life would improve and that grown-up men would appreciate kindness and intelligence more than looks and charm – turned out to be, well, not so true as she would have hoped.
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He would think that I am neither the financial success nor the intellectual he had intended to become. On the other hand, he would think my wife is hotter than anyone he had dated.
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I think she would shriek with terror. And then ask me for $20.
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She’d be happy that her current boyfriend is her husband! She would ask why I’m not a band director given her immense love for all things band.
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1) Sell out.
2) Why haven’t you written those novels yet?!?
3) That’s a pretty cool computer.
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1) Sell out.
Declarative or imperative?
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5. Why do you need a rice cooker as a separate appliance?
6. Why do the kids need so many toys?
7. You pay $3.88 for a tub of Greek yogurt?
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8. You broke more tobacco-use rules after you were 30 than before you were 18. Cool.
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My 15-year-old self would be simultaneously happy and disgusted.
1. You had kids?
2. Nice clothes. You look good.
3. I thought you were going to be a writer. But interesting job you’ve got.
4. Good job getting away from your small town. At least you’re near a big city.
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Rather like y81, my 15 year old self would look at my wife and wonder how on earth someone who looked like that would have married me. He’d also wonder how it could be that I had 3 children, let alone well-adjusted ones. And would look at my financial situation and wonder how on earth it happened. He would also be shocked that I live in the US.
I have a little evidence about this. I have recently experienced a kind of breakdown, which has led to a lot of soul-searching. My therapist suggested I try to find out what other people think of me, and one thing I did was write to a friend (female, but not an ex-girlfriend) whom I knew when I was 15, and was reacquainted with at 37 (ten years ago), and asked her about who I was at 15. She said, among many other things: “To be honest, I was very surprised indeed that you had got married and had children. I thought there would be no room in your life for a wife or children”. It made me feel quite sorry for my wife, marrying the guy that people thought no-one would marry.
She also said “You must remember that at school you were universally liked”. Which made me feel a little better for my wife
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15-year-old me would be so repulsed by the idea of kissing some guy with a beard that she wouldn’t even notice any other differences.
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My 15-year-old self’s thoughts:
1. Hey, my clothes now are really fancy! Where’d all my hoodies go?
2. Wow, I eat like a grown-up now. Boring.
3. This life is not at all what I expected but actually quite cool.
4. I finally have a room in my house lined with full bookshelves–awesome.
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I don’t know what I’ve achieved that my 15-year-old self would appreciate, but I like to think I have spared the world anything as D-U-M DUM as that “California Gurls” song. Yegods.
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Well, there’s what my 15-year old self would think of me now (at 40) — which can probably be boiled down to, nice life, but what’s with the no-job situation — and then there’s what she’d have thought of my 25-year old self.
From the vantage point of 40, I’m having a hard time taking the difference between 15 and 25 as seriously as I should. Then again, I wasn’t Katy Perry.
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