Category Archive

I’ve posted on the excellent book, Do Hard Things before.  Today, a teen inspired me to write more on this issue.

I remember it distinctly.  I’m sitting in the principal’s office, this time in the principal’s chair fixing his computer.  I’m 16…   Trigonometry class is going on down at the high school where I’m supposed to be.  But, the grade school principal called because his computer wasn’t working.  I was called down to the high school office, which happened fairly often for this reason, to go down to the elementary school to fix a computer problem.  My teachers didn’t care…I was getting all A’s and at the top of my class.

The elementary school principal starts laughing as I’m sitting in his chair.  I say to him, “What?”  He says, “Oh, I just remember when we were sitting in opposite chairs.  I always thought you wouldn’t amount to sh*t.  Now look at us…You’re sitting in my chair, and I’m sitting where you used to sit.”  He laughs heartily again.  I laughed and made some dumb flippant comment about how things change.  You see, he was right.  I remember sitting where he was sitting a lot as a child.  He had told me, “I wanted to nail your as*, but I never could catch you.”  He felt this way for all of the bad things I had done, but he had trouble catching me.  I really did deserve to be punished a great deal more than I was.  Somehow, in my teen years, I managed to gain some maturity and turned my life around.  People forgave me, and respected me.  I appreciated that. I think I have my father to thank in part, who worked harder than anyone I have ever known.  Was he perfect?  No.  Was I?  No.

Is it hard to raise a child as a teen….you betcha.  Do I believe teens are capable of doing hard things?  Without a single doubt.  Go ahead and grow up when you’re a teenager.  You won’t regret it.  Be willing to work hard.  Who cares if adults don’t think you are capable of achieving hard things?  I didn’t.  I turned my rebellion into independence and hard work.  If you’re a teen, I encourage you to do the same.

Look at the ability to reason and be mature that this teen shows with respect to abortion.