Listen Up

                Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when the rising generation grows up and becomes responsible people.  Too many of our teenagers and young adults expect other people or life itself to hand them everything they want on a silver platter.  Yet the happiest young people I know are those who set goals for themselves and work to achieve those goals; in doing so, they become responsible adults.

                I have seen the following information numerous times.  I do not know who wrote the information, but I agree with it.  The judge who gave the advice – and the principle who shared it – understands the secret to rearing responsible adults.  This information needs to be passed along and read to the teenagers and young adults in our lives.

                Northland College principal John Tapene has offered the following words from a judge who regularly deals with youth.  “Always we hear the cry from teenagers, `what can we do, where can we go?’

                “My answer is this:  Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons, and after you’ve finished, read a book.  Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun. 

                “The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something.  You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness and lonely again.  In other words grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone not a wishbone.  Start behaving like a responsible person.  You are important and you are needed.  It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.  Someday is now and that somebody is you!”