Determination

It is not where the seed is planted that determines the outcome of it's growth.

It is the determination of the seed to grow! Some flowers grow only because they have the priviledge of being planted in good soil, where they receive all that they need to survive. They are tended to with love and dedication by those who planted them. Some plants are over-cared for, they wither and die, because they received too much care! Some seeds are cast to the wind by their uncaring parent plants who never know where their seeds have found a home. Some seeds are stubborn and no matter how much care they receive they refuse to grow. It is not who planted, or how much care is received, it is the determination of the seed to survive against all odds that makes the difference.

We are like the seeds. Some of us are planted in situations where life is easy and life is good. Others of us are planted into situations where we are smothered and cannot grow. Still some are scattered by the wind and survival is left to us. Some of us are stubborn and no matter how much care we receive, we refuse to grow. It takes a strong will to survive! It is our determination to grow and survive against all odds that makes us different from plants. We have a conscientiousness that makes us reason. Whatever the odds, whether we feel they are fair or not, it is our own determination to survive that creates our future.

We can never become strong healthy human beings if we only dream of what we could have been if things had been different. We must choose to grow in spite of the things we wish had been different.

We cannot grow by laying our lack of initiative on the failures of those who have planted us. We have to adopt the thought that when, "The growing gets tough , the tough get growing!"

Unlike plants we have a choice. We can dream, and we can make those dreams come true, if we put our minds to it.

So often in life other gardeners find us, and try to help us, by tending to those needs we have that have been neglected by those who planted us They cannot make us grow right, they can only offer us assistance, the determination must be up to us.

Even though it would be easier to give up, if we keep our dreams in mind and work toward the goal of achieving them--we can be like the flower seed that found itself beneath the road bed, and somehow struggled through the hard road bed to lift it's face to the sun. It was not easy, it was determination that brought the flower to live in the sunlight.

We too can find a way to live our futures in the sunlight.

No matter the obstacles, with determination--

WE CAN SURVIVE!

Why do adults always ask, "When are you going to do something with your life?"

Do you know how I feel when you keep telling me I should know what I'm going to do? SCARED! How can I know, I'm just a kid! I may look grown up, but I still don't know what I want to do! I may like something today and tomorrow it doesn't interest me. You act like one day you just wake up and the secret of your future is all laid out for you! Then you know what you are going to be doing for the rest of your life. Is that the way it was for you? You say, "You want me to amount to something, do better than you've done."

I hang out with my friends because they are in the same boat I am. It seems safer to be SCARED together than to be SCARED alone! Even though none of us would ever admit to being SCARED about the future. We laugh and joke like it doesn't really matter.

We party and get bombed out of our brains because it takes away the fear for a little while. We don't have to face what we don't know!

We get into trouble because we want to find an easy way to make it in life. There are those in the streets that tell us there is an easier way than working for a living. They say, "It doesn't matter what you are as long as you get what you need!" They make it sound fun and easy. They don't tell you the price of the kind of life you're learning from them! They say, "Just be smart, don't get caught!" So we follow until we find that we were not so smart and we have to pay the price for what we have learned.

Now our future is even SCARIER! What's the use of trying to start again? The world knows where we have been and what we have done, and will never let us forget it! The world will be suspicious of us always!

We are torn between the world and the street. Many of us will go back into the street, vowing to be smarter next time. We feel we are more accepted in the street than in the regular work world! We have wasted so much of our time learning the wrong way to survive, that we feel we have lost out on learning the right way, and it's too late to start again! We feel lost, alone and more SCARED than before! We wear a disguise of being in control and yet no one knows more than we do how out of control we are!

DON'T ASK ME WHEN I AM GOING TO DO SOMETHING WITH MY LIFE?

Don't ask me what I'm going to do with my life? Don't ask me questions I have no answers for! Don't wait until someone else has led me the wrong way! It is your job to help me find my way. I need you to spend the time with me that those in the street are willing to spend. I know I have an attitude, it comes from feeling I should know the answers to the questions you ask! It comes from the fear of growing up! It is easier being a kid with no responsibilities! I know it will be hard for me to let you lead me, but you brought me into this world--

NOW HELP ME LEARN HOW TO SURVIVE IN IT!!