An Open Letter to the World

Hello, world.

My name is Dalia. I am a teenager. And I'm taking names.

I need to be honest in my assessment that the world, or atleast the older generations, because they usually do not understand how hard it is nowadays to be a teenager.

They do not witness the tears.

They do not witness the mental abuse.

They do not witness the struggle.

And you know what? It's pissing me off.

Now to be fair, not all adults think like this but to all of ou who do: the times are changing. Very much so.

Teenagers nowadays, especially more of the older ones leaving highschool soon, can be caught in a whirlwind of school, homework, college applications, extracurriculars, volunteer work, scholarships and grants and throughout all of this we are forced to make some of the hardest decisions of the rest of our lives. All before our minds have fully matured, might I add.

The thing that bothers me most however is the misconception that all teenagers (aside Asians and nerds, of course (NOT)) are alcohol consuming, tempermental, angsty, dramatic, and lazy adolescents with too much free time on their hands. Free time that they use to get high and acquire a couple of STDs, obviously.

But you know what? It isn't fair. Not to me, not you, and certainly not to every teenager who is forced to fit into the media's idea of the "real life of teenagers". Because being a teen means so much more than that.

It means being stressed out. Falling in love. Hating your parents but all the while knowing you absolutely could not exist without them. Making tough decisions. Making bad decisions. Changing the world. Figuring out who you are as an individual. And most of all, having fun and laughing through the tears because you are only young once and this idea, ladies and gentleman, transcends the generations, the religions, and the cultures across the world that have ever been home to teenagers. Sure, some of us maybe like the stereotypical teenager but there is more to them than a generalization. It is just a different way of dealing with things.

And despite how bad it may seem sometimes, to all my fellow teens, it does get better.

To all of the parents, especially the Middle Eastern or strict parents or especially the Muslim parents, I ask this of you from the bottom of my heart: Relax. They know so much better than you give them credit for. We are tough. We were raised right and we know we don't want to leave this world in such a terrible way. (wink)

Thanks for listening, world.


Yours truly,

Dalia ♥

Got Motivation?

I was once stumbling and this is the website I came across. I must say, it was very helpful. WARNING: Swearing is involved. This is not for the faint of heart. Once done reading, click here to give the blogger some love! He's great, no?

Need Some Motivation Right Now? Read This IMMEDIATELY

by Corbett Barr

If you’re in desperate need of some motivation, we’re going to fix that problem, right here, right now.

Prepare yourself.

WARNING: I’m going to swear and yell a little in this post.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

You said you needed motivation. I’m going to do what needs to be done to get your ass in gear. NO EXCUSES.

If this isn’t the kind of motivation you need, leave now. You’ve been warned.

Alright.

Here goes.

Do you want some motherfucking motivation right now?

I SAID, do you want some MOTHERFUCKING MOTIVATION RIGHT NOW?

Do you want to get some seriously useful shit done today?

Do you want to get off your ass and start producing instead of wallowing in despair, depression, self pity, fear, doubt or whatever is holding you back?

Are you sick of not getting anything done?

Let’s DO THIS.

The point of this exercise is to give you motivation to do something right now. Don’t just absorb this and continue sitting around procrastinating.

TAKE ACTION.

Follow the steps below carefully.

Quit bitching about how tired you are.

The world doesn’t care.
And if you’re feeling depressed or down, stop feeling sorry for yourself while you’re at it. It doesn’t matter.
We all face obstacles. How you deal with those obstacles defines who you are and determines how successful you are in life.
Did you catch that? It was the secret to life. Seriously.
Let me say it again.
We all face obstacles. How you deal with those obstacles defines who you are anddetermines how successful you are in life.
Period. End of story.

Read the quotes below. If you have a favorite quote or two you always refer to, read that too.

Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75. – Benjamin Franklin

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t. – Richard Bach

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. – Steve Jobs

If the motivation you need is to work on building your own business, watchthis video:



I don’t care if you’ve seen it before. Watch it again.
Be warned, if you’re not working towards being self employed, this video might push you in that direction.

Put a pot of coffee on or get some tea brewing.

Try a bulletproof coffee if you need an extra kick.

If you haven’t eaten something, eat a little snack now.

For god’s sake don’t eat a fucking twinkie or some other junk food.
Eat something healthy. Eat some nuts or fruit. Take your vitamins.

Do one of the following three things:

A) Take a shower, OR
B) Go for a brisk walk, OR
C) Call the friend who most lifts you up and makes you feel great after every conversation. Tell him or her that you need a little pep talk. Put a 10 minute limit on the conversation.

If you’re around people right now, go tell one of them how much you appreciate him or her.

Just say, “hey, I wanted to tell you that I appreciate you because…”
If you’re not around people, think about something or someone you’re grateful for. Go over the reasons you’re grateful in your mind.
Gratitude is happiness. Happiness is motivating. Be grateful more often by thinking about who and what you’re happy for, or by telling someone.

If you normally sit down to work, stand up.

Standing up to work is motivating. It gets the blood flowing.

Turn off email, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and whatever other social procrastination network you’re part of.

Turn off the TV if it’s on.
Seriously, TURN THEM OFF.

Now, put on your favorite music playlist.

Play something that gets you jacked.
Hint: try the playlist you use at the gym.
(If you don’t regularly go to the gym or workout otherwise, start doing that tomorrow. You have to be healthy to stay motivated.)

List the top 3 positive outcomes of achieving your task.

Think about what you’re planning to accomplish today.
Don’t worry about everything that’s holding you back from accomplishing it. Instead,focus on the positive things that will happen once you get it done.
For example, if you have homework to do, your list might look like this:
1) I’ll learn something useful.
2) I’ll make myself and my teacher proud of what I accomplished.
3) I’ll get closer to achieving a good grade in the class so I can graduate and move on to doing what I’m really meant to do in life.
Write down the three things. Don’t skip this part. Make sure you focus on the 3 most important outcomes.

Think about the part of doing this task that you enjoy.

Most tasks have some enjoyable component to them.
Focus on what you like about what you have to do, no matter how simple or how small. Enjoy the very act of doing your task for what it’s worth.

Now here’s the most important part.

Lock yourself in a room with the thing you need to be doing.
Don’t leave until you make some progress.
Put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, or axe to the grindstone.
Stop looking for external motivation. Stop letting yourself procrastinate.
Start going through the motions of making progress. At first it might feel forced, but eventually you’ll get in the groove.

What to do if this doesn’t work.

We all have things to do that we really just don’t want to do, but have to for some reason. These are the toughest to find motivation for.

For these especially difficult situations, I recommend two things.

First, question whether or not this thing really needs to be done.

What are the consequences of not doing it? Can you live with the consequences? Is there any way to not do this thing?

Then, if you still conclude that this thing absolutely has to get done, focus on simply getting past it.

Imagine the relief of not having this thing on your plate anymore.

How will that make you feel?

Dig deep. See how quickly you can possibly do this thing.

Do it now and move on to stuff you really want to do.

—

Thanks for reading. Now go out and get something important done.

Please share this with someone else who needs motivation.

In the comments below, share your other favorite motivation hacks and tell me what this post helped you achieve.

Written by Corbett Barr. Corbett is the founder of Think Traffic and creator of How to Start a Blog that Matters. Read more about Corbett and this site or follow him on Twitter.

What it Means to be in 2013

This has been the first post in a hot minute, I know, but instead of giving some lame excuse about why I was not here, I will tell you exactly what it means, for me, to be in 2013.

2012 has been a hectic, ridiculous, crazy year for not just me, but I think all of us. To leave 2012 sitting in the dust was a bit sad to see but in a way, it was like burying what already died. It was something that needed to go. It wasn't as amazing as the past few new year's festivities have been, but it was certainly the most special. It was a renaissance.

And that's what it should be. I saw the last sunset of 2012 and as I watched the horizon melt with the sun, I felt the year in that moment. It was like it a scream that was whispered, so subtle but still very, very loud. I sat down on an old water beaten chair that's paint was long chipped and let the year wash over me in the form of a sunset.

I myself am a very sentimental person and I tend to empathize with nature a lot. In that moment, the sun gave us our blessing. It's promise that tomorrow will not be a day, but the first day in a new year (despite the fact that as humans we were the ones who invented time, so technically it may not even be a plausible idea but who cares?).

Isn't that crazy? To say that you bore witness to the very first sunrise of 2013? That, in and of itself, speaks life. That is what it means to be alive. That's what it means to die in 2012 and be born in 2013.

I want you, whomever you are, to stop right now and have a mini-Thanksgiving moment and be grateful, even when you think there is nothing to be grateful for. Because there is life, and that is truly where our true happiness lies.

Thank you guys for sharing this moment for me.

Hold my hand and jump in with me,

Hello 2013.

xoxo

Dalia

(P.S.

We're gonna have a fun year on this blog with what
I have up my sleeve. ;} )

(P.P.S. Here's a snippet of the post that was supposed to go up on December 31st but my plans were kind of...backed up. A lot.

"...2012 is coming to an end and I can't say I'm too upset about that. I mean, it's bad enough the world was supposed to end this year and we had all these survivalists running around killing themselves (and others)..."

Thirty Days of Inspiration ♥: Day Four: An Open Letter to the DMV

To Whom It May Concern:

I must say, of all the horrible things I have ever done in my life, the road rules exam was the absolute worst. Now, don't get me wrong, I love using driversed.com. Using the tests here? Not so much.

Can I please ask you, why, after paying a whopping thirty dollars to take the test online, why I would I be kicked off my exam, that, mind you, I PAID, capital PAID, for and was not allowed the opportunity to even COMPLETE? Why, tell me, why? I would also love to know, why me and dear friend both took the test online just now, were both kicked off (me at thirteen questions, her at twenty) when we both forgot to answer the right answer on our own information that has nothing to do with driving. For questions that should not even be asked. For example, I was asked how much I weighed. I, of course, forgot how much I weighed since I applied a few months ago. But, no.

I inputted the wrong weight. I’m sorry that I am too fat for your exam. Society is clearly coming to an end.

And to allow you to understand the anguish I felt when I was kicked off of the exam (THAT I PAID FOR), I will describe the scene.

Exam: Please input your weight. [___________]

Me: What the hell did I put then? When was the last time I weighed myself?

(enters random number and clicks next)

Exam: F*ck you.

(Exam clicks out)

Me: …......

(beat)

What. The. Hell. MY MONEY!

This is the beginning of a long life struggle with the DMV, I see.

I hate you, DMV.

A Poem

Refugees

They stood tall against the bush

because the forest was too thick to see through.

Watering cans filled with good intentions,

they whispered, “Don’t depend on the mountains

to sing answers disguised as hymns.”

They knew better than to take the middle path.

“Could you say the birds led you the wrong way?”

The youngest stood apart and wrote in the dirt:

“Would you skim the borders of the other

direction, to taste the lies the rivers weep?”

Would you see that gold has made you a fool?

Would you test the cloud’s path against the horizon?

If you met a boy who wrote

his dreams in the language of the stars,

would you press your fingers

that were stained with the blood

of wit against his temples?

Or would you ask him to sit?

And see how he would taste

the difference in the mountain’s tears?

Thirty Days of Inspiration ♥: Day Three: Rejection

So, being an artist (specifically, a writer), you find that more times than not, you will have to deal with rejection.

And I'm writing this post to shed some light on why rejection inspires me.

Now, I'm going to put it out there, I was rejected from a major arts organization, one that-for some reason, in the back of my mind-I was nervous about, and felt insecure. I sent in all of my non-fiction works that, in my opinion, displayed some of the most painful and heartfelt moments in my young life as of now.

So, the shock of recieving a letter that I started screaming and jumping when I saw, and finding it as a whopping rejection of all three pieces..It put me in a bad place.

Before you jump to conclusions, I didn't resort to extreme measures and hurt myself or burn my portfolio or something. I did something worse.

I doubted myself.

I sat in my room for hours, poring over the fact that someone rejected what I plainly considered my heart and soul. It was writing that I cried over as I wrote. It was writing that forced me to go back and retrace the places where I had to grow up, where childhood just kind of stopped for me and would never be the same.

And it was rejected.

Now, this isn't the first time I've been rejected. But to be rejected from a place I so badly wanted to win made me realize a few things.

Midst my tears and heartbreak and self doubt, I had a sort of revelation. And it's something I want everyone to understand.

First, I had to realize that the reason we don't get things, or we are rejected, is plainly to see whether or not we have the strength to accept the challenge of accepting ourselves. I realized, little by little, that my self worth or my talent should not be measured on such subjective terms. I, we, all of us who have ever been rejected need to see that at the end of the day, we are the only people whose products matter most to them.

There is a power in everything we say or do. And I intended to use it.

That weekend, I sent out almost every piece of unpublished work to any literary magazine I could find.

Now, I want you to try it too. Every single time you have ever been rejected, don't take it as an insult. Take it as a challenge to prove them wrong.

And prove yourself right.

xoxo

Dalia

Thirty Days of Inspiration ♥: Day Two: Immeasurable Strength

What really inspired me today was the immeasurable strength some people possess in this world, despite how many hardships are thrown at them. I was reading this article on Yahoo! yesterday about the Clark brothers and their rare disease that forces their bodies to regress over a period of time. They grew up as normal boys, responsible adults but at some point in their 50's and 40's both brothers began to, as Yahoo! dubbed it, age backward.

It was easy for me to imagine how rough it must be to raise your boys all over again and I commend their parents so much for being able to go through something they never, ever imagined happening to them.

I'm going to keep this post short because I feel like this is almost something that needs no explaining.

Please remember that out there, no matter how seemingly bad our lives are, there are people dealing with harder.