If you have a relationship with a teenager, then you know exactly how difficult it was to get them to participate in this nonsense. She balked at the letter board photos and has rolled her eyes every time I’ve mentioned the word interview. I get it — I was a teenager once (a million years ago) — but I also know that she’ll treasure every photo and word that we memorialized and that one day her own daughter will love seeing her mom at every age. Ask me how I know.
As much as Ella has missed seeing her friends every day, she has really enjoyed being a homebody. I’ve tried hard to balance remote work with sleeping late and movie marathons and lots of Netflix. Josh kept reminding me that our kids have never experienced anything like this before and it’s okay to let them have more screen time than usual. It’s been surprisingly fun to introduce them to some of our favorite shows and movies and the time together has been so good for our relationships. Attitudes have waned and the girls have spent more time together and been kinder to each other than ever before. Silver linings, am I right?
I tried to update our list of questions this year, to include things that were more age appropriate and eliminate anything that she found silly or embarrassing. What would you want to ask a teenager about school and life in a pandemic?!
Here are all of Ella’s reluctant answers, in her typical all lowercase, teenager-y abbreviated glory. Gosh, I love her.
1. What is your favorite color? blue
2. What is your favorite television show? vampire diaries
3. What are you currently watching? criminal minds
4. What is your favorite movie? titanic
5. What are your favorite foods? chocolate
6. What is your favorite restaurant? shake shack
7. Where do you like to shop? urban (outfitters)
8. What is your favorite outfit? leggings and a sweatshirt
9. Do you have a favorite game to play? shang-hai (a card game similar to Phase 10, that we play as a family)
11. What is your favorite musical artist and/or song? idk i listen to all the genres of music
12. Do you like to read? What is your favorite book? i haven’t read in a while so my favorite book would probably be something I read in elementary school (she said The Selection Series last year)
13. Who is your best friend? paige & lailee
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? swim
15. What is your favorite holiday? christmas – i just love the christmas holidays and the tree and hanging with our family
16. Do you sleep with anything special at night? no
17. Tell me about a favorite recent memory? my favorite recent memory is my first v game (Her school had their first Varsity football game on Friday night, after cancelling several because of COVID.)
18. What do you want to be when you grow up? a doctor or a reporter
19. Do you know where you’d like to go to college? idk
20. Where do you want to live when you grow up? at the beach
21. Name three words to describe you: trustworthy, passionate, funny
22. Name something you’d like to do this year: have school go back to normal and us have pep rallies and a normal football year (This answer makes me so sad. I want so badly for the girls to have a normal year and enjoy school experiences like they normally would).
23. If you could travel anywhere this year, where would it be? somewhere international like Rome
24. If you had one wish, what would it be? to be rich (typical teenager, right?)
25. What has happened recently in current events that you find interesting? i find it interesting that the virus is still just as bad here in the usa bc people won’t just go home and follow the rules
26. If you could meet any famous person, who would it be? Harry Styles
27. What do you miss most about pre-Coronovirus life? not having to wear masks and being able to do anything without having to the ab the virus
28. Were you excited to go back to school this year? yes
29. What is your favorite subject in school? lunch (this made me laugh out loud)
30. What is something different about school this year? what’s different about this school year is how many people are doing all online so a lot of people are absent and my classes are sooo small
31. What is something you’re enjoying about school this year? i’m enjoying going to school two days a week even though we go back to normal on monday
I will be interviewing the girls on their first day of school each year for as long as they will let me. I can’t wait to see what a difference a year (or two) makes in their answers! You can see Ella’s previous interviews here: 2012 | 2013 | 2014| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019.
