Wolves.

I received a blessing from some Native Americans today, they gave me a blanket and a clapperstick engraved with "The joy of the lord", they spoke into my life and I figured i might share a little bit about what they said.

As teenagers, we often feel misplaced, misunderstood, judged, simply because we are teens. We are looked down upon, much like wolves, people see us and think we're up to no good, they think we're just a bunch of trouble makers.
Just the other day me and Ian were in a store, we could tell that the employees were following us around, as if we were going to steal something.
The truth is, Teens have much more to offer than the world is willing to accept, we all have a place, just like the wolves.

One woman said something that also stuck out at me, she said she always felt like she couldn't connect with Youth, that she wanted to be like us, but she didn't know how to. She said she wanted to learn from us, because she knows we have a lot to teach her.
I thought about this, most teens have heard their parents say "I was a kid once too" "I know what it's like"
You know what it's like to be a kid then, but not now, things are different now. Adults need to learn from kids, they need to be open to learn from us in order to help us. The world can't go on thinking that they know everything we've been through, time has changed, and what it means to be a kid has changed too.
It strikes me, to think that I have to grow up in a few years, and yet, there's someone that wants to be a kid like me. How can you grow up and still be a kid?

"Kids have it so easy nowadays"

No. Don't ever for one second think that us kids have anything easy, more than half of the kids I know have grown up in divided homes, they split their time between one house and the next. Some don't even have families. Sure, we have a lot more opportunities, but it also means more pressure to "do something with our lives" in less time.

"when are you going to get a job? When are you going to get a job? When are you going to get a job? When are you going to get a job?"
"What school are you going to? what school are you going to? what school are you going to?"
"What do you want to do? What do you want do?"

To be honest, I'm tired of the questions, now when someone asks me what I want to do I just say "art".
why?
because it shuts them up, they just go "oh.." and that's the end.
Now when someone REALLY cares, and they REALLY are interested in what I have to say, I'll tell them whatever they want.

Teens don't seem to care simply because people don't care to listen, we're smart enough to tell apart the people that want to TEACH us, and the people that want to LISTEN to us.
Listen to us first, then there might be something you can help us with.

- much like us, even the wolves have a place to come back to when they fall away. That place happens to be my church family.

- Ernie