The possibilities are endless!
I had the distinct privilege to hang out with my 15-year-old niece this weekend. We chatted over vegetarian food, got some much-needed Starbucks discussing her and my favorite beverages, and walked and talked through the streets of the eclectic artsy town. I listened,hope attentively, to her perspective on life as a freshmen in high school…struck somewhat by how much things had stayed the same despite all the technological changes since I was a teen. Teenagers years remain challenging, no matter the generation.
Mid way through our visit….I started thinking to myself…what would I want to know about life as a 15-year-old from a “mid-life” woman’s perspective? Would I listen? Would I be thinking Wow! This old lady is so outta touch? Would I be listening for ways to navigate through the next few challenging years, deciding what and who I was to become? Would it be white noise?
When I was 15, I remember taking a psychology class and being mesmerized by the subject. While I couldn’t have imagined or predicted where the path would take me, I knew I would somehow be a therapist. 15….how did I know? I am so thankful I followed that inner guide, and that my parents encouraged me to do so.
There is something in each of us, guiding us, to be the person we are meant to be. How much time do we take to listen? To find what and who we really are meant to be?
My oldest son has known since he was in kindergarten he is meant to be an artist. Years of trying to contain his creative energy by limiting his drawing on his tests or assignments to the back of the paper and redirection into potentially more lucrative careers with the encouragement of joining robotics and registering of engineering classes has yielded only one outcome….he is still certain he wants to be an artist and now wants to start visiting art colleges. Why am I surprised? Couldn’t I have seen that from almost infancy within him?
When we are children, we are often told to follow our dreams and dream big! But as grow into adolescence and adulthood, somewhere along the way we start hearing the message to find a reasonable, secure, safe path towards our careers and life. What a confusing mismatched set of messages we are given in our life! It’s no wonder so many meet adulthood unsure of what or who they are to become.
So what messages do I try to give my own children and hope others, no matter the age, learn in life.
- The journey in your life is uniquely your own. Don’t follow others just because it’s safe and already plotted out for you. Sometimes it’s in the detours and being lost for a few moments in life that we find the courage to be the people we are really meant to be.
- Take time to meditate, pray, or think about what really makes you happy. You cannot short cut figuring out the road map to your dreams.
- Do what you really love, the money will come in doing what you really love and are good at in life. What if the creators of Minecraft were told to stop creating and designing their silly computer/video game? Guess they didn’t really need the $2 Billion it was sold for recently, right?
- Be uniquely You. Everyone else is already taken.
- Choose your friends, your interests, and clothes wisely. All are a reflection of who and what you are, becoming….. And the photos of you in potentially ridiculous clothes will haunt you in adulthood.
- Talk to your “elders”, and find some you trust. Our years on the planet do allow for us to have made many more mistakes than you already have, why make them if you can avoid them.
- Make mistakes. Yes….sometimes it’s in the mistakes that true, authentic growth comes from within us.
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day. While many schools & businesses are closed today, I wonder how many people are really doing something in honor of his “dream” or spending time reflecting on what the “dream” really meant/means?
What would our world be like if people like the great Martin Luther King, Jr were discouraged from dreaming? Discouraged from thinking BIG? Discouraged from believing the world could be better than it already was/is? Discouraged from finding out what and who he was really to become?
Advice to kids/teens/young adults out there….remember….There is only “1” you. Go out and find out what and who the one and only you is to become!
If looking for a way to find out who and what you are to become….why not reflect on the eloquent words of Mahatma Gandhi, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Brilliant.
Peace……..
peaceinthejourney 