3 Things I'd tell my teenaged self

As an adult we look back over our lives and through all of our experiences, our failures, and our successes and we wish we had said a few things to our teenaged self. Here's a short list of the advice I would have given myself or wanted someone else to give me. 1. BELIEVE you can I faced a lot of challenges as a young teenager and I didn’t always believe that I could accomplish my dreams. None of my classmates or my teachers knew that I was dealing with a mother who struggled with drug addiction. When it came time for me to prepare for college, I just couldn’t see it. How would I be able to go to college? Who would send me care packages and spending money? I didn’t know that there were scholarships that I could have applied for, I didn’t know that there were grants that I could have taken advantage of. No one in my immediate family had gone to college, how would I know? I would definitely go back and tell my teenaged self to BELIEVE, press and fight through what I saw. I chose instead to enter a secretarial program that would ensure that I had a good paying job when I got out of high school. I will never forget the look on my favorite teacher’s face when I told her I would be going through a 10-month secretarial program instead of going to college. Mrs. Pritchett was my English teacher and I never understood why she made me come to class earlier than everyone else, why she gave me a reading list above our class level. I now know that she BELIEVED when I did not. She didn’t know my circumstances, she didn’t know the demons I faced at home, but she did BELIEVE. 2. DANCE out loud I know you’re saying, “What in the world is “dance out loud?” As a teenager I didn’t take advantage of a lot of things I wish I had. I certainly had the ability and the capability but I didn’t take the risks that I wish I had. I didn’t “dance out loud” and allow myself the opportunity to be a kid. I didn’t go out a lot, I didn’t explore the creativity that I knew I was gifted to have. I went to Creative and Performing Arts High School, and although I could sing, although I could write, I only did what was required. Partly because I felt stifled by my circumstances, I felt restricted, I felt inadequate. But now I would tell that young lady to GO, dance out loud, let the world see all of that creativity that you keep bottled away. I’m far from my teenaged years and I am into EVERYTHING! People often ask, “How do you do all of that? How do you have the time?” I don’t really think about it, but I guess you can say I’ve finally figured out how to dance out loud! 3. You don’t have to go through it alone What would I have been able to accomplish if I had just reached out to someone? My teenaged self never reached out to a teacher, a counselor or a classmate about what I was experiencing. I came to school with the same cheerfulness every day, regardless of what I experienced or saw at home. When I talk to classmates today they are shocked that I had any of that going on. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of what was going on, I just didn’t think talking about it would solve anything. There were so many young people in my neighborhood with the same issues so what made me so special? None of us need to be an island unto ourselves. We need one another to get through tough times. Often just a smile, a listening ear or a moment of laughter away from our trouble, is all we really need. I don’t know what my life would be like had I taken heed to the advice above. However, I do know that I’ve landed right smack dab in the middle of my purpose on this earth and I am grateful for each lesson, each struggle, each trial and triumph that has gotten me to this place. I can’t go back and tell my teenaged self these things, but I’m glad that I remind myself of them now each and every day!