Where it all started

Only a few short years ago, I was a teenager just like you.

Life flies by at such a rapid rate that we never get to stop to think and to assess where we are going or what we should be doing. This often leads to bad choices and mistakes and when we are older and wiser – we start to regret the way things have become.

Emotions govern the decisions we make and as a teenager it is hard to rationalize how the decisions could affect us in the future.

So where do we turn for help? Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I recall being told by a semi-cool guidance class teacher that we should not ask our friends for help, because they really know as little as we do about life and their advice could just exacerbate the problem…

I want to share with you some of the decisions I faced as a teenager, how I dealt with them and why I’m glad I made the choices I did.

Being at my age, 27, I have not forgotten what it’s like to be a teenager, but I also know now how to avoid terrible mistakes. My friends are mainly older than me, because I grew up with much older siblings and I have become used to being around older people (they are not that bad once you get to know them!). One learns a lot that from watching the lives of older people unfold and seeing the consequences of their decisions. Older people are placed in our lives for that very reason.

I have done a couple of courses where I got a certificate or so, but the best education I got, was from Life’s University of Hard Knocks. That is where you gain the most knowledge and practical experience.

Sometimes in life when things go wrong, people say, “It happened for a reason. ” Does that not infuriate you? It used to make me angry too when I heard that, until I ‘got’ that it is in fact very true. Life has thrown me around quite a bit, as you will discover throughout this book. I do believe however that everything happened to me for a reason, some of it I understand now and some of the other things I will understand later, maybe if I am meant to..

Towards the end of this book I will show you how you can find meaning in your own life-events and how to grow from that and find comfort in a productive, responsible and positive way.