The teenage years are the hardest years of your life. Adults may try to convince you otherwise because of their hectic occupations and home life, but they're wrong. And I'm not saying they're wrong because I'm a teen who thinks I'm right about everything; I'm saying they're wrong because I have reasons why.

As we continue to grow and experience, we learn. And as we learn, we live. Our fragile little hearts aren't at their full state of growth yet, breaking easily over little things and big things. Yes, we're going to be a mess when our 2-month boyfriend/girlfriend breaks up with us. Yes, we're going to take everything to heart and have it never leave our minds. Yes, we're going to judge and be judged. Yes, we're going to experience and struggle. This part of our lives is the time to learn what's what; figure out what this whole "life thing" is really about.

Although, some may never mature. You will find those who will never think twice about their decisions they make or their future. You will find those bullies who will remain bullies forever. You will find those who mess up and decide to keep messing up. But in the end, all that matters is you. What are you going to do in your teenage life? Adults have already passed this stage; job in hand, making money, creating/having families, living in their own homes. But we, as confused, worried, curious, little hormonal people, don't have the answers yet. We have to choose NOW whether we're going to make the smart decisions. We have to choose NOW whether we're going to accept the differences in people. We have to choose NOW whether to accept maturity or not. We're slowly reaching adulthood, and the climb only gets rockier.

So consider this: who are you really? What type of person do you want to be? Are you that bully who needs to wake up and smell the roses? Are you that shy, anti-social kid who needs a friend? Are you going through emotional problems that you need to get out of? Change yourself. You can't change others. Be strong and stand up for yourself. Be strong and wipe away those tears of those who hurt you. Be strong and help others. Be strong now because it will only help you in a greater way for the future.

See, adults? Can you read all of those words I've just written? That's only one problem that teenagers have. Pour school, sports, activities, family problems, friend problems, relationship problems, self-esteem problems, and stress problems on top of that. It isn't that easy to handle, but it's possible. I think the most important part of being a teenager is finding out more about yourself. If you know exactly who you are, you'll know what to look for in life. So far, for me, life has been going great. No matter what obstacles come up in life, I stay positive because there's only a thousand more ahead that I'm going to have to face.

Be strong, stay positive, and be a good person; those are the top three things to surviving the teenage life. They're easy to follow. Imagine if everyone in the world could follow this. World peace? Maybe. But there's many people who didn't find who they really were when they were young. There's many people who chose wrong paths. There's many people who didn't believe in themselves. There's many people who chose not to grow up. And that's why there's evil on this earth. That's why we have problems; war, terrorist attacks, murder, rape, abduction, stealing, and so much more. And it could have all been prevented. So as you grow, learn and live. Make right decisions, make wrong decisions, but always learn. Change. Believe. You only live once, the cliche we know well.
Live, laugh, love.