Back in 1999 a poem came out that I thought was cute, but not especially meaningful. Later they even made the poem into a song. \u00a0As I read that same poem today I no longer find it just cute, I find it extremely meaningful and I can\u2019t help but get choked up by it.\u00a0 Oh how time changes us!\u00a0 I hope all of you enjoy the meaning as much as I do now:<\/p>\n
Wear Sunscreen\u00a0 -by\u00a0Mary Schmich<\/b><\/p>\n
Wear sunscreen.<\/p>\n
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.<\/span><\/p>\n Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you\u2019ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can\u2019t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n Do one thing every day that scares you.<\/span><\/p>\n Sing.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t be reckless with other people\u2019s hearts. Don\u2019t put up with people who are reckless with yours.<\/span><\/p>\n Floss.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you\u2019re ahead, sometimes you\u2019re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it\u2019s only with yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.<\/span><\/p>\n Stretch.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t feel guilty if you don\u2019t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You\u2019ll miss them when they\u2019re gone.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe you\u2019ll marry, maybe you won\u2019t. Maybe you\u2019ll have children, maybe you won\u2019t. Maybe you\u2019ll divorce at 40, maybe you\u2019ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don\u2019t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don\u2019t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It\u2019s the greatest instrument you\u2019ll ever own.<\/span><\/p>\n Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.<\/span><\/p>\n Read the directions, even if you don\u2019t follow them.<\/span><\/p>\n Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.<\/span><\/p>\n Get to know your parents. You never know when they\u2019ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They\u2019re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.<\/p>\n Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.<\/span><\/p>\n Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.<\/span><\/p>\n Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you\u2019ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.<\/span><\/p>\n Respect your elders.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you\u2019ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t mess too much with your hair or by the time you\u2019re 40 it will look 85.<\/span><\/p>\n Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n But trust me on the sunscreen.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n It\u2019s amazing how\u00a0true so many things in this poem turn out\u00a0to be as we get older in life.\u00a0 My challenge for everyone today is to take to heart the\u00a0words of this poem, and most of all \u2013 don\u2019t ever forget\u00a0to\u00a0WEAR SUNSCREEN!<\/p>\n Have a great day everyone!<\/p>\n ~Amy<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in 1999 a poem came out that I thought was cute, but not especially meaningful. Later they even made the poem into a song. \u00a0As I read that same poem today I no longer find it just cute, I find it extremely meaningful and I can\u2019t help but get choked up by it.\u00a0 Oh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[387,1375,1021,540,91,240,4099,89,1499,189,7,3764,3760,2935,1794,629,1522,64,35,4097,2742,4095,3695,53,143,974,845,447,2276,4098,608,84,4094,4096,543],"class_list":["post-4577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advice","tag-afraid","tag-amazing","tag-beauty","tag-change","tag-children","tag-congratulate","tag-dance","tag-divorce","tag-friends","tag-future","tag-growing-up","tag-guilty","tag-hearts","tag-impactful","tag-inspiration","tag-jealous","tag-life","tag-love","tag-love-letters","tag-marry","tag-mary-schmich","tag-meaningful","tag-motivation","tag-poem","tag-power","tag-scared","tag-sing","tag-song","tag-stretch","tag-sunshine","tag-trust","tag-wear-sunscreen","tag-wprry","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4580,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions\/4580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}