Use your Four Powers!

Power #1:  You choose how you act.
Power #2:  You choose who you become.
Power #3:  You choose how much courage you show.
Power #4:  You choose how much you give.

Each of the following teens used at least two of their four powers to change their lives.  While you’re reading their stories, try to figure out which powers they used – at the bottom of the page we’ll let you know.

Abbie - No More Cutting

Mawi, after receiving and reading your book Of Beetles and Angels, I subscribed to this newsletter. As a 13 year old girl living in a small town in Vermont I needed something like UpWord. You have helped me so much I don't deserve any award you give. My goals for this year were:

1.) To become more self-confident
2.) To be more trust worthy
3.) To trust my friends more
4.) To stop using self-mutilation
5.) Smile more
6.) Help more people
7.) Become more involved in my community
8.) To make and keep more friends
9.) Take on more responsibility
10.) Read more of your books!!!!

I am so happy that I accomplished 4 of my goals. I have confidence, something that I never really had before this year. I understand that I am who I am and that will never change and if people don't like me it's their loss. I trust my new group of friends so much more than I did before. I think everyone deserves a chance to be trusted, and my friends and I haven't gotten in one fight yet. I stopped cutting myself, which I was becoming more and more scared about. I was always afraid that one day I would come home and be so up set I would slit my wrists. And all of these things have caused me to smile so much more!
     

Krista – Changed My Life In a Month

You came to our school about a month ago in Florida (Winter Haven High) and I was there to hear you speak. And I payed attention to everything that you said and I was so suprised to see that I was following what you told us to do when I got home. And I want to thank you because you helped me out a lot. Before you spoke to us I was making C's and D's and I was getting into trouble with the law and doing a lot of things that I shouldn't have been doing like smoking weed and drinking. I blamed a lot of it on my parents because they are both in jail for a very long time and I was really close with my mom when she was sent away. I was running away like 2 times a week and stuff like that. And I hated my grandparents because they wouldn't let me do the stuff that I wanted to do. But then I sat down and thought about what you all said and I made my plan out and I asked myself where I wanted to be in 10 years and I thought about it and thought about it. I realized on the path I was taking that I wasn't going to be any of those things. And I knew that I shouldn't blame my actions on my parents or hate my grandparents because they know what is best for me. And since then I have made A's and B's and I haven't got into any trouble with the police. I quit smoking and drinking and stopped hanging out with the people that I used to, and I feel like a whole new person. And I want to thank you so much for inspiring me to do the right thing. I am trying to get a lot of my old friends to quit their habits, but they can only do that on their own. I hope they come around though. But again, thank you.

Greg– Not on My Bus  
 
Hello, my name is Greg and I'm an 8th grade student at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia IL. Every few times a week a 7th grader, who isn't the coolest kid I know, would be harassed on my bus and I didn’t get involved and tried to ignore it as much as possible. After reading your book I realized what I needed to do.
 
In front of the whole bus, I stood up to a group of 30 kids that were making fun of him and I told them to leave him alone. That stopped them for a while. Unfor-tunately these kids started harassing him not to long ago again. This time a bunch of punk 6th graders, 15 or so of them, stole his back pack and his favorite hat. I was furious that somebody could do that (gang up on a helpless kid who'd never done anything to hurt anybody else) so, I ran up to the front of the bus and told them that they'd better give him his hat back along with his backpack or they would be dealing with more than they wanted. It was about that time that people in my grade who had previously made fun of him realized what they did was wrong and they stood up when I was stating my anger with the 6th graders and they said numerous things, mostly agreeing with me and shouting "yeah!".

For that day the conflict was done and the backpack and hat were restored to their rightful owner.   A few days ago I noticed something was happening and he was being made fun of again. I told them to stop and they did. Today (3/10/2004) he was being harassed AGAIN and this was the last time and I was going to see to it, no human being deserves to be treated like this, and someone so helpless needs guidance and deserves someone to stick up for him. So I go up to the front of the bus and I told the wannabes (that’s all they really are) that were messing with him that if they mess with him again they will be messing with me, and I brought the kid to the back of the bus and I let him sit with us.

I plan to stick up for this kid as long as he asks for my help and as long as he needs it. In short I realized that I could care less whether the people on my bus think I’m cool or not and I would rather stand up for what is right rather than what is considered cool to some people.

Abbie used the following powers: 1) her power to act, instead of doing nothing, she acted. 2) her power to choose who she becomes – she wrote her goals and worked toward them. 3) her power to show courage – she faced her fears!

Krista used all 4 powers (acted, chose who she wanted to be, and faced her fears) and also decided to help her friends improve their lives, too – her power to give.

Greg used the following powers: 1) the power to act – instead of doing nothing, he took action. 2) the power to show courage – instead of giving in to his fears, he stood up to all his classmates 3) the power to give – he reached out to someone who needed it.