A Heart for Teens

Adolescence is a time of exploration and experimentation.
Depending upon a child's earlier training and development determines the depth of their experience during this critical time of growth. As a child, I was taught to be polite and pretend everything was alright, even through turbulent times.
For years, I wore the mask of a smile when deep inside I hurt. By the time I became a teenager, I was filled with mixed emotions.
You see, learning to smile and pretend that all was well during adversity caused me to miss out on valuable life skills.

Instead of learning to communicate my thoughts and feelings during difficult times, I pretended that problems did not exist.
As a result, I never learned how to identify feelings and became confused about my emotions.
By the time I reached adolescence, the emotions inside overwhelmed me.
My parents were college graduates, and worked hard in their professions. Both valued family and education.
Provided with a beautiful home, the neighborhood make-up included ethnic cultures different from my own and predominantly white. While initially culture shocked when I entered into junior high school, I eventually became compelled to connect with classmates that looked like me.
Inspired to reach out to make new friends, I was rejected.
Shortly after the incident of rejection I received unexpected news.

An announcement of my parents' divorce devastated me. Even though the arguments increased after the loss of my father's job, I never dreamed that my parents would divorce.

Then, a whirl wind entered my life. Ill-equipped to cope with all of the emotions stirred up inside I chose to explore and experiment with drugs and alcohol. This new coping mechanism helped me to deal with my life.

Additional adversity came into my life and caused emotions to grow. A heartbreak stimulated by the separation from an intimate relationship filled me with pain. The betrayal of very close friends confused me.

In 1981, I lost my father to heart disease.

In 1982, I lost a close friend to murder. In 1983, I lost my mother to cancer.
Overwhelmed by the pain I felt inside, my drug and alcohol use escalated.

As a result of my exploration & experimentation during my adolescence, I adapted to a different lifestyle.

This lifestyle led me to a place that I never knew existed on earth --- Hell. Towards the end of my active addiction, I used drugs and alcohol to live and lived to used drugs and alcohol.

Finally, this way of life no longer worked.

No matter how much I used, the pain did not subside.

I reached out for help and found recovery. Led to recovery, I started to make discoveries about my life.
A major discovery awakened me to the importance of communication.

I found that communication is an essential tool for confronting and walking through adversity.

I have learned to express my thoughts and feelings with any situation in life and gain access to freedom. As a result of this awakening, I am passionate about carrying this message to teens with the hope that they make powerful choices during the time of exploration and experimentation.
After 22 years of living clean & sober, my heart is fueled with passion to contribute new ways of thinking that empower teens to discover their own passion for life.