Your Potential, Your Privileges

During high school I have never failed to surprise myself.  I have done many different things through the years.  My sophomore year Student Council was my thing.  I dedicated my time to that and it was good.  My junior year I cheered. It was wonderful it was the closest I had come to gymnastics and I'm so happy I did it.  This year, my senior year. I'm on student council again and I'm a sports med intern.  With these different activities has come different friends and different experiences.  I've been at the bottom of the food chain, the middle and the top.  If you would have asked me my sophomore year what I would be doing this year I'm positive I would not have come up with any of the things that have happened.  As I've tried almost everything in high school I've had many different experiences.  One of the things in particular I've dealt with this year is gossip, judging, and I guess you could go as far as to say bullying.  The first year and a half of high school I laid low I stayed in my comfort zone.  I had good friends I was content with who I was and was not about to cause any little uproar I wanted to keep as many people as I could happy with me.  There was nothing wrong with this and I don't regret any of it.  But about half way through my junior year I started to see all the things I could be doing if I would just step out of my comfort zone just a little bit.  I started talking to different people I stopped caring so much of what others thought of me and I put myself out there a little more everyday.  But as you start talking to more people more people know who you are.  More stories are made up about you and more rumors are spread.  When all this started happening at first I was able to turn the other way, ignore what was being said and I kept living my life the way I liked.  Things started to get worse friendships started to be destroyed my strong foundation was being chipped away.   I started to let everyone else affect my life.  I was letting what the world said about me affect me.  I knew this was happening and it was driving me crazy that I was not being myself.  Most people would say they would give anything to go back and do it all over again.  I could not disagree more because through all this I have had to learn to rely on my savior and my testimony more than ever.  I love this talk by President Uchtdorf  because it reminds me that I have a choice to make I can stay in the safety of my cabin and eat my beans and lemonade where I know nothing can hurt me or I can see what life has to offer for me I can taste of all the wonderful things and learn so much from it.  I might get hurt but I will be able to learn and strength myself so much more.  You all have that choice to make also.  I challenge you to enjoy life never wish away a moment because your waiting for something better make that moment what your wishing for.  Don't let anyone tell you who you are and where your going.  Make that decisions on your own and with the help of your father in heaven.  So many of you have amazing potential but you won't leave your box for fear of getting hurt.  We all make mistakes and we all fail sometimes but that is when we learn who we are and who we want to be.  And when all else fails go Pray.