excerpts

11.1

We're teenagers and we want to be reckless and fall in love and be with friends and laugh and smile and have fun and even scream at the world when everything isn't alright. We want to travel and we daydream about leaving school and setting our hearts free all over the world and being with the people that matter instead of wasting away our lives in a classroom. We've made mistakes and regrettable decisions and we've triumphed and had great moments and we've fallen back down but we've always gotten back up to keep on fighting because that's what we do, we fight with anyone and everyone and ourselves and rules and then we break them. I think it's great to be a teenager even though everything is falling apart most days and getting six hours of sleep is difficult and we're starting to have responsibilities and that's scary to think about, because our life is such a variable. We've barely lived. Our lives are blank slates as of now. And I know it feels so hard to live sometimes, and you just want to give up, but just remember that there's so much more in life to do, so much to experience, that you can't miss out on. I mean, come on, getting your license? Going to college? Moving out of the house and making a life of your own? What about all the people that you have left to meet? What about THE ONE that you have left to meet? If you don't keep living, someone will never find their soulmate. That's pretty sad. Even if it feels like you have nothing here to live for, just know that you have the future to live for.