To the youth of today

Through out all the rough nights
and all the heartache
through all the pain and all the tears
there is something that I have learned
over the years.

When you are in the dark and
you have no where to run
don't sit around because nothing
will come.

If you want to leave the darkness
and find the light you have to keep
moving and you have to put up a fight

Through this life you will have plenty
of tears, fears, friends and foes
happy moments, and sweet dreams
but when everything happy becomes a
haunting memory you have to know this
that if you want to get through you have to
push through it.

No matter what happens there is always hope.
There is always someone that truly loves you
and makes you feel alive.

Please do not punish the ones that have done nothing
because there have been so many to hurt you.
You have to learn the line that separates
the future and the past.

If you live in the past
you will always have a heart filled with lies
you will always have that heartache to tear
you apart and then you will be asking yourself
Do I really have a heart.

You have to learn to deal with one thing at a time
you have to learn that life is like a river
moving fast and deep.

You have stepping stones across this river
you do not just jump into a river
if you can not swim you have to use the stones
you have to take care of problems one at a time
and with every stepping stone you take
leave the ones that you have overcome in
the past and remember that there are more ahead.

Just please all I ask is don't become lost
like I did,
Don't allow others in your past to blind
your eyes and your heart with hate.
Because until you can love yourself
and respect yourself you will never be happy
and true happiness is the hardest thing in this life
to find along with finding who you truly are.

So don't allow the hurt to take over you
don't allow those who hurt you to become
your every memory,
but do not forget them,
remember them to show you
what you never want to become.

You are the youth of today
young, alive, just beginning
so have fun and make mistakes
but learn from them.

Ask questions to learn the answers
and try to never forget them
and those that you love always
respect them as you respect yourself.