Along the way, you will see a lot of things this life will have to show you. Along the way you will laugh and you will cry. You will see great things and terrible things. You will live through more than you can calculate at this point. You will rebuild more times than you can possibly imagine.
You will both live through and outlive moments of humiliation and intimidation. Along the way you will make new friends. You will let go of old things. The way you think will change and the way you dress will change. Your music will change and your taste will change.
As you move about the world in your own way, you will learn more about yourself. You will find out that some of the most important ideas from your past are no longer relevant to you.
Along the way you will live through different versions of “You” which means the “You” of your youth is not the same “You” as it is in your 20’s or 30’s and so forth and so on.
As you move about the world, you will learn more about criticism. You will learn that above all critics, unfortunately, we are often our own worst enemy. You will learn why other people do and say things and you will understand this is more about them and has nothing to do with you.
You will learn more about the crowd. You will learn about mass opinions. Along the way, you will find your best version of comfort. You will learn what works for you and what doesn’t.
Along the way, you will look for things to improve your life. You will look to find the route of happiness and then one day, you will realize that most of what you were looking for is the reflection staring back at you in the mirror.
As you grow, which can happen at any age, you will see the parrots and the mimics and the people that repeat and reword the same ideas and yet, they never dare to have their own thoughts or their own opinions. They simply follow along. they never lead and they never dare to be different or original.
You will meet people that look to build you up. At the same time, there will be those that smile to your face and sneer behind your back. Not everyone is a friend and not everyone is an enemy. And sometimes, people can be both. There will come a time when your definition of friendship evolves. You will learn this as you grow, which again, can happen at any age.
Let us not pretend that all of this is easy. No, life is anything but easy. Life is challenging. Life is a course of its own. Life is not equal nor does life play fairly.
There will be times when you make plans and rest assured, life will change them. Life will alter your plans with unexpected curves and dead-ends in this maze, we call everyday living.
I have news for you:
People will let you down. This is nothing new to you. And you will do this too. There is the yin and the yang. Sometimes the world breathes out so something else can breathe in. And sometimes people compliment each other in the worst of ways. On the other side, there will be people in your life that compliment you in the best of ways. Never let them go.
There will be times when you need comfort. There will be times when you seek comfort in ways that are less beneficial. And that’s okay. Just be mindful there is always a price when it comes to a quick fix. There will be moments when the wind is blowing through your hair and you feel as if you are on top of the world. There will also be moments when you are down and out.
This means you are human. All of what you think, experience, and feel are part of your human nature. Do not allow yourself to buy into the fact that you fit into a mold or that you are defined (or designed ) by a labeled existence. This is not so.
You are human. This means you have the right to live, love, and learn to the best of your ability. Understand that anything that disturbs your right to live, love, and learn to your best possible ability is a contributor to emotional or mental challenges.
Along the way, you will experience emotional bouts and mental challenges. There are disorders in the world. And if you have some of them, for whichever reason, my best suggestion is avoid the stigma. Do not allow this to define you.
You are the most beautiful, special, important person in your world. The moment you ever see yourself as ugly or anything less than exceptional, then please, come back to this because along the way, sometimes we allow our challenges to redefine our description of beauty.
No one is ever ugly if they believe they are beautiful. Then again, no one can ever be beautiful if they believe they are ugly. In fact, something I learned during my travels is no matter how pretty someone is on the outside, if they are ugly on the inside, then they can only be average at best.
As you move about your life, you will find the bravest thing to be is equally the easiest thing to be, which is to only to be yourself. Do not be swayed. Do not be distracted. Do not build your life according to someone else’s blueprint. Do not allow anyone to pin your hopes on their ideas and above all, never surrender your smile to anyone that does not deserve your time.
I have said this before and I will leave this here in the written word so that no one can take this away. The day they steal our smile is the same day they stole us. Never give this away.
You are going to experience life. There is no way to escape this. Into each life a little rain must fall, which means misery does not play favorites. But so what? There are going to be challenges. There are going to be moments of disappointment and times that seem so terribly and absolutely unfair.
I wish this part wasn’t true but it is.
There are going to be moments that you hope will last forever and there will be people you love that move on in life. This will hurt. And you will mourn. However, you will also be gifted with memories that will never die, which means you and all the people you love have never died to begin with. They’ve only changed forms. Their energy is still real. And since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but only change forms, this means our energy is our best resource because our energy is how I know that you and I will never die.
Our influence is our life. Our ability to talk or touch the soul of another human being is miraculous to say the least. Along the way, you are going to learn that this is a person’s true value. This has nothing to do with gender because our influence upon each other in this world is non-binary; it neither identifies as masculine or feminine. There is no color or race, orientation, religion or creed with this. No one can take this from you because this is you. The influence you have upon this world comes from the depth of your spirit.
Along the way, you will understand more about people. You will understand more about their mistakes. You will understand that I made mistakes. You made mistakes. And the world makes mistakes. This happens frequently, as in, all the time.
Forgiveness is a gift. I do not claim this to be an easy thing but forgiveness is a mutual benefit. This does not mean that we liked what happened. This doesn’t mean it wasn’t wrong or it didn’t hurt. Instead, forgiveness is a mutual pardon but more accurately; forgiveness allows the mind to clear its shitty yesterdays to allow tomorrow to reach its best potential.
We are all human here. Thus, if I am to close here then please allow me to close this with one final suggestion.
Never put anyone above you. Never put anyone on a pedestal.
Believe me; every so often, the people we put on pedestals prove that they are human too. We all are.
And you, God, if you only knew how beautiful you are . . .
That smile of yours would never go away.
That’s all I want.
The Written Addiction 