I want to have fun. It’s a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.
—Nas, Performer
At the end of each day, Jordan and his friends always meet at his locker to discuss after-school plans. The four of them have spent the last two months creating a YouTube channel with funny homemade videos and are trying to get viewers to their site.
Mark is the first to arrive. “We’re not working on the site again today, are we?” he asks. “We should pick something else to do before Meredith and Jennie get here.”
“What are you saying about us?” Jennie asks as she and Meredith join them at Jordan’s locker.
“Our YouTube channel totally sucks. We only have twenty subscribers, and we spend all of our time working on it,” Mark says.
Jordan rolls his eyes while Jennie nods her head in agreement with Mark.
“I’m not quitting,” Meredith says. “We knew it would take a while to build up when we started this project.”
“I agree with Mark,” says Jennie. “I think we should do something else. What do you think, Jordan?”
“I knew it wouldn’t catch on right away, but I think our stuff’s funny. I’m going to keep putting videos up until people discover us. Eventually, we’ll have our fan base.”
What do you like to do in your spare time when you’re not in school, spending time with your family, or hanging out with friends? Are you running from activity to activity because you have so many interests and are overcommitted? Maybe you’ve found the perfect balance between school, activities, and family time. Or are you still struggling to find your niche and plan your days? If your passions don’t fall into the traditional school, sports, or after-school activities, then you may have to work a little harder to find something that sparks your interest. Get on your computer and do a search for hobby or activity ideas and you will get more results than you can imagine. Don’t worry about whether you’ll find other people interested in participating with you. Chances are that if you’re interested in something, then someone else out there is too. So go ahead and ignite your after-school time with a brand-new activity!
Discover a new passion. I’m going to try a painting class because I think it would be cool to create my own artwork for my room.
If you don’t already have an activity that you participate in, or if you’re looking for a new one, it’s important to find one that makes you excited. Ask yourself what you want to do and why you want to do it. Activities are time-consuming and require a commitment, so make sure you’re doing them for the right reasons. Are you picking the activity only because your friends or parents want you to join? Or because it will look good on your transcripts? Sometimes this forces you to try something new and you end up loving the activity. Or it may turn out to be a short-term thing as you continue searching for that perfect hobby you will enjoy for many years. Here are a few you may want to consider:
Allowing someone else to choose your activities. My dad and brother played football, so I play football.
Archery
Blogging
Building houses for Habitat for Humanity
Computer programming
Cooking
Darts
Frisbee golf
Furniture painting
Geocaching
Inventing
Photography
Rock climbing
Skeet shooting
Yoga
Running 5Ks
Fishing
Gardening
Chess
YouTube tutorials
Collecting
Woodworking
How do you go from being a fifteen-year-old writing stories in your bedroom to being offered a three-book deal from Random House? If you’re Beth Reekles, you post your novel on story-sharing website Wattpad and wait until it’s viewed over 19 million times. This placed Reekles on Time magazine’s “The 16 Most Influential Teens of 2013” list alongside people like Lorde, Hailee Steinfeld, and Malia Obama. Now she is a physics major at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, an author of three books, and a TEDxTeen Conference speaker. Find out more about Beth by visiting her at bethreekles.co.uk. Read on to learn how she used the internet to connect with other people, share her passion, and get noticed.
1. How did your interest in writing help you to connect with other people your age?
I actually used to think writing was a weird hobby because I didn’t have any friends who wrote. When I found Wattpad, the online writing forum where I began posting my stories, I realized there were so many other teens who, like me, enjoyed writing and posting their work online—so I started to upload some of my own work. It was comforting to know there were other people my age who loved to write and it wasn’t something to be laughed at for.
2. What advice can you give someone who wants to be a writer?
I’d definitely recommend looking at writing forums like Wattpad where you can self-publish easily and quickly, and get feedback on your work. I never thought I was any good at writing—it was just something I did for fun—so when I posted online and realized people actually liked my work, it was a huge confidence boost. I think posting your work online is a great starting place, especially for young people, because the communities on websites like Wattpad are really supportive.
3. Where did you get your confidence to post your first story?
I had pretty much zero confidence with my writing, but after I’d been reading on Wattpad for a while and had seen there were all these other people my age who were writing and putting their work out there, I remember thinking, Why not? What have I got to lose? After all, nobody on the site knew me, so they’d only judge my book by what they read. They wouldn’t tell me my book was good just because they were my friends and being polite. The anonymity of it was a big appeal for me.
4. What advice can you give teens who are trying to find their passion?
I think it’s important to try things and not be too concerned by what other people think—if you want to write, then write; if you want to play hockey, even if none of your friends do, do it. Do what makes you happy. If I’d stopped writing just because my friends didn’t write and thought it was unusual, then I certainly wouldn’t have gotten a three-book deal at the age of seventeen!
5. What should they do once they identify their dream?
Perseverance is key: I remember looking into publishing the year before I was offered my book deal with Random House, and the whole publishing industry looked so intimidating, I thought I would just be rejected because of my age if I tried to send my book to anybody, but that didn’t stop me from self-publishing my work online. It’s also important to find an outlet to share that dream—for example, lots of people who love singing post videos on YouTube.
6. How has having a passion helped you to discover who you are?
Being able to embrace my passion for writing has really helped me to become more determined and more confident. It’s led to some incredible experiences—doing TV, radio, and newspaper interviews, for instance. And being seen as a role model to so many young girls has given me a greater sense of responsibility too.
You may be looking at your schedule and wondering where you can squeeze in an activity if you are doing volunteer work or have a job. Actually, they both count as activities. Some people prefer to spend their time helping other people or supporting a charitable cause. Or you may be someone who needs to make a little extra cash. Jobs, volunteer work, and internships give you real-world experience and a glimpse of the outside world. No matter which one you choose, you will learn valuable lessons in time management, responsibility, and working with other people. Warning: It’s tempting to work as many hours as you can or to get wrapped up in a volunteer project. Make sure you are managing your time so you get enough sleep, have enough time to study, and can spend time with your friends and family too.
Gain valuable experience. My job will teach me how to work with new people, work a cash register, and budget my money.
Do you need another excuse to be active? Extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and part-time jobs look awesome on college applications. Colleges and universities aren’t just looking for good grades anymore. They are looking for well-rounded individuals to attend their schools. Activities don’t have to be academic to look impressive on your application. If your transcript shows you did volunteer work at a hospital and started an archery club, then admission committees will assume you are compassionate, competitive, and organized. These differentiators might give you an edge when applying to your favorite schools. Don’t choose activities just because you think they will look good on your transcripts, though. Pick activities that show who you really are. This way you can enjoy what you’re doing while you’re beefing up your resumé!
Try new things. Interning at the radio station will show me what happens behind the scenes of a radio show.
When Lulu Cerone was in fifth grade, she organized a girls-versus-boys lemonade stand challenge to raise money for Haitian earthquake victims and then clean drinking water in Africa. The kids had a blast, and they raised a ton of money for charity. This launched the first of many PhilanthroParties. Now at sixteen years old, Lulu has helped over 4.2 million people organize their own events through her organization LemonAID Warriors. Her social activism has earned her a lot of support and recognition, like being named a 2014 Nickelodeon HALO honoree, receiving the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, winning the Montage Memory Makers Contest for humanitarians, and earning the President’s Volunteer Service Award. To get more information about LemonAID Warriors, or to get to know Lulu, visit her website at lemonaidwarriors.com. Read on to learn how you can throw your own PhilanthroParty.
1. What inspired you to start LemonAID Warriors?
I was inspired to start LemonAID Warriors after the success of a fifth-grade boys-versus-girls LemonAID War I organized [to raise money] for the Haitian earthquake victims. I was shocked at the amazing impact of this simple event where we ended up raising $4,000. The real inspiration came when my friends begged me to organize more events because they had so much fun. I started to plan social activities with charitable themes and called them PhilanthroParties. I realized that showing compassion toward those in need actually made us kinder and more compassionate toward each other. These were bonding and empowering experiences, so LemonAID Warriors became a platform to share ideas that make social activism a part of our social lives.
2. What advice would you give teens who are trying to find their passion?
To find your passion, start off with identifying an activity that you truly love to do. The best chance you have of making a positive impact on the world is by committing to something fully for an extended period of time, and that’s so much easier if you love what you do. Eventually, if you think creatively, you can find a way to turn that activity or skill into a tool for change. Maybe it’s music or sports. Maybe it’s shopping or playing video games. LemonAID Warriors has ideas to turn any passion into action.
3. What would you say to teens who feel the need to conform to their peers instead of expressing their uniqueness?
If you really feel the need to conform at the expense of expressing your uniqueness, then I would actually support that decision! Go ahead. Conform! It won’t last long. Expressing uniqueness takes courage, and if you are not feeling confident enough just yet, then don’t beat yourself up. Not everyone is born with confidence. Some of us need a little time. As long as you know and value what makes you unique, and as long as you keep developing your uniqueness, you will eventually have the confidence to express it and truly be yourself.
4. What’s the greatest thing you’ve learned about yourself since starting LemonAID Warriors?
I learned that simple actions done with integrity and commitment have a powerful impact and create a ripple effect of positive change beyond what we can imagine.
5. How can teens become LemonAID Warriors?
Contact me on my website. Hopefully someday you can buy my book! Take advice from this interview. Throw a PhilanthroParty or put a charitable twist on something you already love doing. Keep it simple. Share your stories and photos with me, and I’ll share them with my network to inspire others.
6. What’s next for you?
I’d like to write a book to introduce some of these ideas and action plans that re-brand generosity and service ideas. Most people think of community service as a big project that is really hard to fit into your busy schedule. My ideas take [activities] you are already doing and give them a simple twist to turn them into tools for local and global change. Then I’d love to figure out how to get these ideas into schools. My personal passion causes have to do with basic human needs like water and education. I’m excited to continue developing creative ways to support these causes.
If you are going to try new things, meet new people, or challenge yourself, then you have to change your perception of rejection. You may have to face this when you invite someone to a dance, try out for a sports team, run for class office, interview for a part-time job, or in a million other possible scenarios.
Letting your fear of rejection keep you from trying new things. I’m not trying out for the team since I probably won’t make it anyway.
You have nothing to lose by trying new things (like the above examples). The worst answer you can get is no; but you can’t ever get a yes without taking that risk. If you run into an obstacle or roadblock, then try taking another route. If you lose your school election for student government, then consider volunteering to help a local politician’s campaign or join your school’s debate team. There’s always another way to participate in what you enjoy doing.
Spotlight
Austin Hay, Tiny House Builder
While many of his fellow high schoolers were hanging out with friends, playing video games, and thinking about graduation, Austin Hay was figuring out how to eliminate a future home loan. After his family home burned down and his dad had to rebuild it, Austin decided to start his own home-building project. With $2,000, he bought a trailer and began construction of his 130-square-foot house. Since he had no building experience, he needed to educate himself along the way.
His house took his entire high school career to build and ended up costing $12,000 to complete. It has electricity, a composting toilet, a shower, a refrigerator, and a cooktop. He sleeps in an upstairs loft. The tiny home is registered as a trailer, so he can drive it to college. You can watch a video tour of his home by visiting YouTube and entering his name. His amazing project has been featured on several news sources and blogs. By igniting his spark, Austin has managed to find a way to live on his own without having to pay rent or take out a home loan!
From the time you are born, life is a balancing act. Every day is a combination of obligations, self-care, and hopefully fun. Your sense of well-being counts on you to provide for your social, emotional, and spiritual needs. Activities are a great way for you to fulfill those needs with positivity.
Your social needs can be met when you’re bonding with people who share your interests. Even if it’s a solitary activity like writing or computer coding, you can join clubs or participate in online forums where you can discuss your activities.
Did you know that activities fulfill emotional needs? They give you all of those feel-good emotions like satisfaction, pride, and happiness. These positive emotions increase your self-confidence and make challenges easier to handle.
You might not consider your favorite activity spiritual if it’s not affiliated with a religious institution, but spirituality can be found when you find a calling larger than yourself. If you do volunteer work, raise money for charity, or watch out for your younger siblings, then you are filling your spiritual cup.
Lacking balance between activities, school, and family time. I’m too busy to have hobbies.
Activities provide the perfect balance between what you need to do every day and what you want to do every day. They increase your sense of well-being and are a whole lot of fun. Some of the activities you try today may end up being lifelong hobbies or stepping-stones to your dream career. So get out there and try new things!
Think of something that interests you or that you’d like to learn more about, whether it’s chemistry, coding, soccer, cooking, or painting. It can be anything. Now come up with an action plan on how you are going to pursue this activity. First, find an expert or mentor for this activity. This can be a coach or teacher at your school, or someone who has a string of YouTube videos providing instructions for your new activity. Think of some peers who already participate in this activity or may be interested in joining you. The goal is for you to build your own activity group consisting of an expert and of people your own age. For example, if you are interested in running a 5K race, you can contact your local running stores, the YMCA, and your school’s cross-country team to gather information. The goal is to put your plan into motion.
