“This, too, shall pass.”

Those are four little words my grandma strung together for me on many an occasion that have been constant graffiti on the back wall of my mind.  They’re really hard to wrap your head around when you’re a teenager and the whole world revolves around you and every day seems to last an eternity and yesterday’s mess is still a pile in your room.  Lately, the headlines about the teenagers and young adults becoming overwhelmed with life and ending it are staggering.  It was going on when we were teenagers, no matter your generation, but technology is making the world a smaller place and we’re hearing about it more and more.  Information travels fast… be it news, entertainment or, unfortunately, childish and potentially hurtful bullying.

If only we could all encourage our children to surround themselves with people that share their interests and not concern themselves with the ones that didn’t.  To seek out people that like the things they already like rather than try to conform to what ‘the crowd’ is doing.  To realize that their teenage years are only a tiny, miniscule fraction of the rest of their life… while it’s great to enjoy them, please don’t get hung up on the culture of high school because it passes so quickly. 

I hope I can instill in my daughters that the way to build themselves up is by building up their friends and encouraging them to be the best… not by tearing down the people around them to look better themselves.  I hope they seek out positive people in their lives… other young ladies that have some quality about themselves that they love and want to share.  That they know to appreciate the differences in people and know that everyone doesn’t have to be the same in order to have respect for someone else’s well-being.

I can’t control the world around them.  I can’t keep people from picking on them.  But I can give them the tools to combat it and hopefully they’ll have the strength and courage to use them when they’re needed and that, in turn, may encourage someone else.  

Tomorrow is always another day.  Let’s start encouraging each other to spread tolerance and celebrate difference.  Adults can use that lesson as well.  Educate one another without ostracizing… everyone doesn’t have to be like you.  When adults stop criticizing each other for their sexual orientation, financial status,  political affiliation, religion, etc…………. and just accept that some people are different—maybe our children will have better examples and it’ll be easier for some of them be okay with who they are and look forward to tomorrow.