I learned something when I was your age:
and it got me through a lot of secret hard stuff.
I learned how to look at my life as a timeline:
from age 0-100.
And I realized that my teenage years, ages 13-19, only made up 7 years:
out of my entire life.
And those years started to look a whole lot different to me.
They looked small: in the course of the timeline of my life as a whole.
And because of all the pain and turmoil I went through in my teenage years, this was both a revelation and a relief to me:
that I wouldn’t be stuck in my teenage years forever.
So don’t let these seven years discourage you, if you’re struggling.
Don’t let them change your mind about your dreams.
Don’t let them derail your passion.
Don’t let them suck you away from the things you enjoy.
Don’t live them in such a way that your future looks fuzzy:
Live them with goals.
Live them with intent.
Listen to your parents or to those in your life that love you and try to give you good advice when you come to them.
Because there is SO much life that you have yet to live:
on the other side of your teenage years.
I was bullied as a teenager.
I endured some very long and difficult years.
In the midst of those years I felt like my life would never get better and the pain would never go away.
Some days I hid in my bedroom.
Some days I hid in the bathroom stall.
Some days I felt like I couldn’t go on.
But looking at my life as a timeline helped me immensely.
And I hope it helps you too.
I hope you learn in these short years.
I hope you learn to stick up for someone else.
I hope you learn to befriend someone who is all alone.
I hope you learn that following the crowd means nothing…
but that following your God-given dreams:
means everything. 