Something To Think About

2024-07-14 “Something To Think About” by Emma

Me, Jenn, an’ Merritt are back in the condo, and getting ready for bed. Merritt wants us to go somewhere tomorrow and maybe see some alligators and other things that live in the marshes, so I’m going to bed right away.

I took some pictures of me and there where two more that I liked. “Cept I looked like I was hardly 13 on account of how my face came out. I’m 19. I ain’t a little girl.

Fact is, I been in 2024 for 11 days now. Before that, back in 1880, at 19 I was already past getting-married-age and shoulda at least had a baby on the way. ‘Specially considering I was a dirt-poor sharecropper girl. I s’pose that’s why daddy wanted to dowry me off to that man, Shamus.

Now here I am, not two weeks later, and people see me as barely more than a child. Jenn and Merritt were talkin’ ‘bout renting a car to go down to that place Merritt wants to see. It came up that, at 19, I ain’t old enough to normally drive a rented car. That’s to say if I could drive in the first place.

So, now I can’t rent a car, but back in 1880, people were looking at me crosswise for being so old and not wed. Nor even betrothed. I knew girls that married at 17 and had one on the hip and one on the way by 19.

Now, I ain’t suggesting anything, but it’s gonna be something else I have to adjust to. If I met a boy that was nice and that I liked, and if I wanted to marry him, I think a lot of folks in 2024 would say I was too young. That’s just the opposite of how I was brung up thinking! 

Well… I’ll just do what I do. I’ll adjust and play along until I get a better understanding. 

And I just looked back at all I wrote. I really need to slow down and work on using my 2024 words. I asked Jenn if I should erase it all and start over fresh. She said not to; that it showed who I currently am, and in time, writing like 2024 will come easier.

I just took my time to write that paragraph before this one. I can change, but I’m sure I’ll mess up a lot.

Same for everything I’m facing, too.

Thanks for reading this.