Ahhhh, teenage years. The reckless, careless, risky, rebellious, attitudish, hormonal, and worst part of a person’s life…according to adults, that is.

But to teens…it’s the best time of our lives.

We’re finally free to go out and live, to make friends and to have fun.

We’re free to make our own mistakes and learn from them.

Free to discover who we are, and who we’re meant to be.

Teenagers have the lightest souls, these years shouldn’t be wasted, they should be lived, lived with intent. Strong, strong intent to make every single moment worth it, to make the best of every single second.

Yes, we will screw up, but if you’re gonna screw up, do it now. Learn from it now. The best thing to do as a teen is not be afraid to LIVE while you’re young, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you, and getting older brings stress, and heartache, and anxiety, things that make old people want to be children again.

Listen to music, try new foods, pick up a sport, join a club, go to a party, make weekend plans with your friends, have people over, watch movies, eat lots of dessert, travel as much as possible, fall in love. Be a teenager, mess up, learn, be free, do fun things, go to school, get a job, start making a life for yourself, but still have fun. Discover what life is, make your mark on the world, take a standpoint as to how you see things, how you see the world, and don’t ever let anyone stop you from living your life the way you want to.

As teenagers, we should be nothing but happy, living lives where the only things that worry us are our grades and who we’re going to sit with at lunch tomorrow.

These years aren’t about what college you get into, they aren’t about what job you get, who you marry, what your parents want for you, they aren’t about your future at all. These years are about YOU. They’re about who YOU decide to be. They’re about the people you meet, and the people who impact your life. These years are about now. They are about what you do, now. Because they pass you in the blink of an eye.

Teen years are the time to: BE YOU. DISCOVER YOU. EMBRACE YOU. LIVE YOUR LIFE. APPRECIATE IT. EMBRACE PEOPLE. CHERISH EVERY SECOND.

So go, you lovely teenagers, and make every second of these years worthwhile, because you’ll never get them back.