Just Have Hope

 "Whoever decided that eighteen is the time to be an adult had too many expectations." -Liz I have just turned 19 (last Friday) and looking back being 18 for a year did not exactly go the way I planned. But then again, does anything go the way we plan it to?  Being an adult is hard. Half the time I felt like I was a kid pretending to be an adult. Sometimes I walk into a store and have to remind myself that I am old enough to be shopping on my own. Haha! In the eyes of the law, I am a legal adult but as for everything else I am adult-ish. As I have learned from going to YSA, no one has everything figured out. In fact, the people in YSA don't act the way I expected them to. Everyone is still growing up one way or another and facing whatever life decides to throw at them.  If I had another year of high school I would nail it. Now I am in a new stage of life and I have to learn to be a successful young adult in college. Turns out the next stage of life always occurs right aft...

 It's easy to recognize what we lack or have trouble with, however, when it comes to our strengths we have a harder time naming them.  All of us don't like it when we mess up. No one really does. However, we tend to hyper-focus on what we have done wrong. In fact, I even admit to doing that myself.  Please remember that your weaknesses don't define you. You are so much more than your mistakes. You are a child of God. That means everything.  I have found that others have a way of recognizing my strengths and talents. If you have a hard time seeing this, ask a trusted friend or loved one to tell you what they see in you. You might even be surprised by what they tell you. Sometimes we can beat ourselves up for what we did wrong. Please remember that you are human. We all make mistakes. And making mistakes is part of this life. Next time you make a mistake instead of beating yourself up over it, think about what you learned from it and how it will make you a better perso...