I don't know about you, but I've been having these semi-melancholic thoughts lately. As a teenager, I often face expected challenges such as school, family and boys. Well, mostly boys, haha. You see, when I was growing up, I had two older sisters to become my sort of "examples" before I reach that age where your hormones are unstable and pimples are the only thing that you can confirm a "forever". It was intimidating, honestly. My sisters are so extraordinary that I can't help but feel, irrelevant.

That's where the self-doubt comes in. Self-doubt isn't healthy, honestly. It brings you down, your mind becomes "serabut", and you end up benchmark-ing yourself against everything you can. I'm not gonna be a hypocrite here, I still do so. I benchmark myself when it comes to grades, social life, looks, wealth, everything and anything honestly. A couple years back, I would've been drowned in all these negative thoughts, but now I know better. I know better, because I know I am so much more. I am so much more than the number of followers on social media, than the boys I wish liked me back, than the grade on my test, more than anything earthly.

This is a magnificent thing, honestly. It's magnificent because I know I have so much potential in myself. I have more potential to be successful than destructive. Although, the only way I can achieve this is if I surround myself with good vibes. Everyone has only two choices in life; either you look at it high, or look at it low. What I mean by looking at things high or low is the way you interpret the occasions that happen in your life. When you look at mishaps as challenges rather than damnation, that is what brings you to a positive, encouraging path in life.

I too, am a teenager, and I know first hand what it feels like to not be enough. To feel stupid, to feel irrelevant and unloved, but that's all what we choose to believe. I, you are enough, you are smart, you are relevant, and you are loved. It's completely natural to feel this way, but you musn't let it eat yourself up. You are stronger than your thoughts or the demons in your head. The only way you can let yourself down is by succumbing to this dark shadow hovering over your head, trying to deprive you of any light that makes you shine.

You are so much more.

Till then

Love, The Avant Guard