Oh, Seventeen ...

I remember sometime around the age of seventeen being confronted by my drunken mother and brother-in-law, who were asking me, "what are you going to DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?"

I think this is an insane question to ask of a 17-year-old in the first place. I felt pinned like a butterfly to a board, and I had no answers, only fear and anger. It seemed for years that question was written in blood on the bathroom mirror.

Robyn got me out of there and away, thank you forEVER Rob. It is REALLY REALLY hard to be 17, then and now. We must rebel in order to become our truest self; we cannot take others' advice, because they have their own lives and views. We must make mistakes, because that is how we learn what is not right for us.

Let us remember how it felt to be an adult on the outside and a child on the inside ... let us recall how painful it was to be facing the world and not knowing which direction to take. Let us remember that we do not know the best for others, and that the inner promptings, for right or wrong, are what we all have to follow.