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Do My Best“Do your best”. Three words every teenager hears from their parents and knows the secret meaningbehind it.
Three words every student dreads to hear at the dawn of a new school year. Three words thatwe all know really mean “don’t fail me as a parent” “don’t mess this school year up” “don’t hang outwith the wrong crowd” and of course “you better pass all of your classes, or else”.As teenagers, we all have this overwhelming desire to impress everyone we come across. It may be thatboy or girl at Starbucks, or the teacher that fails most students, or especially our parents. As much as weact like their opinions don’t matter to us, having your dad say “wow, you did a great job” or your momproclaim “honey, I am so proud of you”, means the world to us. The biggest battle I remember goingthrough (and still do on occasion) is the “times have changed” and “when I was a kid” disputes. OkayDad, we get it, you got perfect grades and cut everyone’s lawn for extra money. And Mom, congrats,you never hung with the wrong crowd and your grades were just a tad better than Dad’s. We get it.What I’ve come to realize though, is in some aspects of life, times have not changed. Parents are stillscared to death that we won’t make something out of ourselves. Teenagers are still worried about notbeing a disappointment.Who defines what “your best” is? The thesaurus gives us synonyms such as defines best as mostexcellent, top, finest, and greatest (all pretty intimidating). Christianity would probably say some alongthe lines of WWJD and everything will be okay. Parents would say it’s proudly representing the familyname. Schools would say it’s making the highest test score. The main source that should define “yourbest”, we most commonly ignore completely- ourselves.K-tina’s definition of “your best”Not focusing on A’s and B’sNot worrying about what everyone else’s standards areBeing who you are and never trying to change thatNot trying to fit in with the world, but fitting in and being comfortable with youI’m not trying to say that we don’t need to worry about what our parents think, believe me, they have alot more wisdom than we think. I’m simply trying to say, don’t worry as much. If you live your entire lifeworrying about what your friends, or family, or teachers, or even strangers will think of you, then youwill not get very much accomplished.I leave you with a challenge, it might sound lame, but trust me, it helps a little more than you think itwould. Get a poster, a sheet of paper, a sticky note, anything, and at the top write the words “I will doMY best”. Then underneath that, define what is “your best”. If you know that you are a C student andthat’s your best, then that works, and note that anything above that is a miracle. Have fun with this.Be realistic. Be true and honest to yourself. Most of all, stop trying to impress everyone. There willalways be someone who disagrees with you. Feel free to send us your definitions of “your best”. This isfor you, and if it’s for you and from you, there’s no way that anyone could be let down.Peace, Love, and 2 Teaspoons of Wishful Thinking, |
