rebelling against low expectations
I am turning eighteen in six days. By the world’s standards I will officially be an adult. By the time you read this I probably already am. What is so great about getting older? Why as kids do we dream and imagine what it will be like when we reach the euphoric moment of becoming a ‘grown up’? What is so wonderful about it? It’s supposed to be fun, right? We’re reaching the prime of our life...
Most people believe that teenagers can’t get published. At least, not “normal” teenagers. It takes outrageous talent, famous connections, or astounding luck. Just like making it to the NFL or winning the lottery. It’s a common cultural assumption: normal young writers like you or me could rarely, if ever, get published. But what if that was just a myth? What if that assumption is not so accurate...
Sweaty palms. Feeling sick. Not wanting to go to Church because of that overwhelming feeling of dizziness. I would feel this way whenever I had something coming up: a skit, some sort of ceremony, when it comes to friends, and even when my brother would step up to play a piece at his piano recital. Things made me nervous – concerned. It’s completely natural to have anxiety about...
If asked to write a letter to my eighteen-year-old self, it would look something like this… Be faithful in the small ways. Take out the trash so that someone else doesn’t have to. Call your mom. Drink lots of water. Leave your cell phone in your pocket and make eye-contact with the person sitting across from you. Like Brother Lawrence washed dishes to the glory of God, study with enthusiasm and...
Dynamic statesman. Powerful warrior. Cunning spy. Courageous enough to stand up for the truth. Wise beyond his years. Mighty with God and with men. These are just a few of the ways we could describe Joshua. More than anything else, Joshua was a young man who sought God. What can we learn from him about seeking God? Let’s look at a key episode from his life to find out. When God met with Israel’s...
I was sitting on the train on my way to Uni the other morning when a group of people sat in front of me. Two little girls – around six years old and more than likely twins – spending the day out with their grandparents. I untangled my earphones and listened to music as I looked out the window, watching the same scenery go by as I do four times a week. An almost two-hour commute to Uni and the...
I just finished updating one of our most popular writing resources. It’s called The Young Writers Guidebook. It’s a collection of advice from young published authors. Last time we had seven authors participate. This time we have twenty. And when I contacted each of them I asked these two questions: – How old were you when you first started taking writing seriously? – How...
In a broken world, broken relationships are in abundance. It seems there’s always someone we’d like to be closer with, apologize to, or never see again. A couple years ago, that was one of my brothers. We’d always had a rocky relationship, and it just kept getting worse from the lack of maintenance. To be honest, I didn’t care what happened. God did, though, and He changed my heart, giving me a...
The world hurts. But not as much as it should. Because honestly, I closed myself off, tried not to feel much over Manchester. Not because it wasn’t an utterly abhorrent thing, not because the loss of innocents isn’t tragedy, not because the inside of me shouldn’t cry at such loss, but because I shut myself off from the pain. There’s too much — I don’t want to feel. Something inside cries that...
Meet Bethany. She’s a 14-year-old fiction writer from England with a dream of getting published someday. And she just had a terrible experience. In a discussion with three girls her age she was told: “You can’t do writing as a job.” “You may never get published.” “You might not be good enough.” “You need a real job to fall back on.” Ouch… Bethany was crushed. So much so that she wasn’t even...
rebelling against low expectations
