Perfect in my Mind

Perfect in my Mind

Friday, June 10, 2011

A Real Life Benjamin Button.

At eleven years old, I was roughly 5'6". This posed a predicament for me, because my family hadn't yet discovered the 'junior' sizes at clothing stores.  We only knew about kid sizes and women sizes.  Growing up in a small town, you had limited options as to were you could acquire clothing.  In our case, K-Mart was our go to place to shop.  Every year in my family, the girls would get new Sunday dresses for Easter.  It was an exciting time.  My mom drove me and my little sister to K-Mart, and we started looking around for something suitable.  My sister was still short enough to fit into the kid sizes, but I (obviously) was not.  I moseyed around the women's section for awhile, and came out with something I thought was absolutely darling.  It was a deep green shade with some sort of African print.  Ankle length.  Short sleeve crinkle jacket, with shoulder pads attached.  It also had a wooden necklace attached to the front of the dress.  It was totally boxy on my 11 year old frame, but I picked it out and wore it to church on Easter Sunday.

As I walked into my Valiant 11 Sunday School class, I casually sat down next to my teacher.  She looked over at me and winked, saying:  "I like your dress, Chelsea."  I looked over at her and noticed:  we were wearing the exact same thing.  And oh yeah . . . she was in her early sixties.
At age 11.
When I was twelve years old, my mom and aunt took my visiting cousins and myself to the local beauty school to get manicures.  I was so excited.  I loved getting my nails done, and always felt so proud after.  As the nail technician filed and polished my nails, she asked questions in an effort to make me feel comfortable.  After we chatted for a bit, said technician asked me a bold question:  "How old are you, Chelsea?"  I replied, honestly, "Twelve.  I'm in sixth grade."  She gasped in unbelief--and proceeded to call all of her friends over and have them guess my age.  One woman guessed 20, another 25, and another 15.  After revealing my actual age, one woman said, "No way.  You've got to be kidding me!  I would have thought you'd be at least twenty four, and have a couple of kids!"
At age 12.

It was 2003, and I was thirteen.  In middle school, we'd celebrate the holidays in the cafeteria.  For thanksgiving, our parent's were allowed to come to the school and eat with us.  My friends and I didn't have our parent's come . . .we just sat by ourselves at a table.  As the end of lunch hour drew near, the lunch ladies went to each table to remind us kids that it was almost time to head back to class.  When the lunch lady got to my table of friends she said, "Oh, you guys are okay.  You have your mom here" (looking at me).

 Me at age 13.

Last week, as I handed my supervisor my work schedule I noted that I would be coming in on a weekend day because my husband had to work. He replied,  "Sweetie, you look like you're about twelve. How young do the marry them off around here?"  I laughed and said, "I'm actually twenty one."  He said, "Well, you sure don't look it, Chelsea."
Me at 21.
Contradictory?  I think yes.

At this rate, I'll be a baby in a few years.

11 comments:

tifsong said...

my my. chels. you're such a beautiful woman. seriously. stunning.

i'd rather be called young then have people ask when i'm due.

i get that all the time.

Dolly said...

Chick-You absolutely crack me up! I love your gift of humor and your writing style is superb. This has to be one of the best blogs EVER:)

Unknown said...

How do you get your hair to curl this way? I haven't figured it out yet.

Laura Eve said...

oh my goodness, too funny. sounds like something teddy would say, but i'm doubting he got a promotion.

Annette said...

What a creative wonderful post! Please print out your blog someday...it'll be a great journal. You are beautiful at any age. I always looked sooo young for my age it was so annoying, but now I wish did! Oh well. :-)

Nav said...

hey sweetie, thanks for coming by my blog and commenting. You are gorgeous girl! I agree with Annette - beatiful at every age.

I am following you now, hoping u would support me too?

xo Nav
http://navlandstyle.blogspot.com/

Brittany-Trends250 said...

haha you are funny! im glad you posted on my blog so i could find ya! and i had a hard time knowing what my body type was too, but try this post & see if it helps any:
http://wearebeautifulbecausewearewomen.blogspot.com/2011/06/do-you-know-your-body-shape.html

Sara SHOEmaker said...

oh my goodness this is crazy! you really are Benjamina Button! this is pretty awesome, I would claim I had magical powers if I were you. you are stunning by the way-love your hair!
House of Shoes

Gertrude said...

You're gorgeous!! And you do look younger than when you were 13! I always looked a lot younger, I'm 21 and people still think I'm 16-18.

kristine [kristine. or polly.] said...

Hahaha, this was the funniest story! I totally relate to that last bit - everyone thinks I look really young. For my college graduation last year I told a saleslady at BCBG that I was looking for a graduation dress... and she thought high school graduation. I wanted to smack her. Just kidding. Kind of. Anyway, I have to say, you look absolutely adorable in that last photo.

Unknown said...

That last picture of you is gorgeous. In fact, all of the pictures on your blog are GORGEOUS!