Words to Live By

Written by Alexis

From todler to tween, my mom would always rave about, "Me not having a mean bone in my body", but what I have noticed about myself and my friends is that no matter how sweet and inocent you are as a kid, you develop some edge or fiestyness along your journey tweenism. I am not saying you turn into this devel child, but we as tweens typically feel more rebellious against authority. Why is this? I do not know, but I think it is because we get a little tired of our mom or dad feeling it nessesary to cut our spagetti, or hold our hand as we cross the street, or constantly telling us what they think is 'best for us'.

After so much, I think us tweens draw the line and say enough! Now is the time to start treating me like a big girl! Well, this might be our reaction, keeping it bottled up inside and when we finally say something, it all comes out at once. Let me tell you, you feel like a complete idiot after you are finished. You lose control of what you are saying and you turn into a monster!

This applies not only with talking to your parent, but also a friend or sibling. You do not get respect by coming from a place of anger or blame. When people see you yelling and getting overly defensive, all respect goes out the door. Especially in the future, when you are trying to get a job and you employer sees you blow up like that... well, you won't be getting that job! (Which stinks if it is a job you really want!)

When dealing with a situation where you have to get your point across, my mom would always tell me that you picture your head in your stomach and speak from the heart. This simply means that you say what you need to say, but you do not let your head get in the way of what your heart wants to say.

If it is something that is really important for the other person to hear, then they will really understand what you are trying to get across. If you yell and scream, the person will not really take what you said into much concideration. Chances are that if you tell them something that could possibly offend them, they will get offended, but they will respect you more for how you held yourself when you said it.

Words my mom tells me that may help:

"Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean"

Words to live by!