My Birth Daughter's 16th Birthday Letter - by Terri Rimmer

August 6, 2016

Dear McKenna,

You turning 16 soon brings us to another annual birthday letter.

You will turn Sweet 16 on Aug. 15 and get your license on the same day – a huge turning point in your life, a stepping stone that is a huge responsibility and a privilege.

You are such a good driver, much better than I was! And I'm proud also of the person you have become so far. You're so smart, mature, ambitious, talented, and curious. I get teary-eyed when I think of how everything has developed up until now.

I remember reading about all your milestones through the years and seeing your pictures up till now, marveling at my little girl, emailing friends and family those emails and pictures, scanning photos. I have framed so many pictures, made photo albums, often gone back over baby pictures, finding it hard to believe that so many years have gone by so quickly yet not so quickly. I still have the “McKenna Walls” that you saw so long ago when you were ten only now they've been updated.

I have written so much about you and there's still more to be written and always will be more to be written.

Okay, here comes the dreaded “When I was your age” memory:

When I was 16 I was taking acting lessons in Atlanta, riding the MARTA train back and forth but also getting a ride part of the way. I had fantasies about being an actress in addition to being a writer, though I really knew that my true passion was in writing. My acting teacher was pretty tough and there were only like six of us in the class. My sister Cindy went with me one day. It was hard for me because I wasn't an expressive person at that time. Not like you.

You are animated, which I love.

I was also working at Six Flags Over Georgia in the Attractions/Games Department. My main station was Guess Your Weight and we would guess people's weight and/or age. If we got it wrong they got a stuffed animal. The customers would show us their license after we guessed their age or weight to see if we got it right. We got rotated to different stations so sometimes I worked the basketball booth and other booths. I made $3.05 per hour. I carried a till belt around my waist which was $150 for the day so I had to make sure that at the end of my shift I had the same amount with me.

It was my first real job and it was so exciting and fun. It was just for the summer and back in those days the hottest it would get would be 85 degrees maybe. I developed a crush on a couples of boys I worked with but we never went out. One of them was named Richard and he was tall and worked in Attractions, too. I still remember what both of them looked like.

My sister and I both worked at Six Flags but not at the same time. When she was 15, she worked there as a balloon girl because at that time that was all you could be hired as. But when she was 16 she also worked in Attractions and even had a guy in a band who performed at the amusement park write a song about her. I still remember how it goes and his name – John Capote. I wish I still had the tape.

Sixteen is a time of innocence.

I still remember some of the songs that used to play when I worked at Six Flags. Every time one comes on the radio I flash back to that time.

I hope you have a great birthday and I know you will have great memories of your 16^th, too.

Love, Terri

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