Go Break It...

The following was written as a response to my 19 year old daughter who expressed on Facebook that she needed to change how she was conducting her life. She was asking for assistance from her family. I woke up, read what she said and wrote the following back to her:

You know you have my support 100% darling. I will not leave you and it is my ardent desire to help you become the best you you can be.

Remember, I want only two things for my children when they grow up: their happiness and their ability to obtain it. There's no magical formula for that, just honest self-evaluation and and then lots of hard work.

Only *you* have the power to get what you want for yourself, everyone else is here to help or hinder you.

Sit down, think out what you really want for your life and then tell us about it. Helpers will find ways to help you, hinderers won't. Minimize your interactions with hinderers. Lather, rinse, repeat.

All life is a game of trial and error. We make mistakes, we learn from them, we get better. We are only failures if we don't learn from our mistakes and get better.

Now I'm going to let you in on two secrets of adulthood: First, no matter who you've been or what you've done, you can *always* choose something new for yourself. You don't ever have to be who you've been.

Second, THERE IS NO END ALL BE ALL TO LIFE.

You may look at me and see how happy I am and think "she's got it all down," but then you know damn well I don't. It was just over a week ago that I cried my eyes out for hours because I made a mistake.

And what did I say about it?

 "I broke it and fixed it better than it was before I broke it."

THAT'S LEARNING, THAT'S GROWTH, THAT'S LIFE. THAT is how you achieve happiness.

So please, my love, my darling daughter, go forth and break it, then learn how you broke it and fix it better than it was before.