Make life amazing

DECORAH - I believe that I have control of my future. My dad made me realize that.

When I was younger, I wanted to be precise about so many things, including painting evenly, coloring inside the lines and doing everything right.

However, I often messed up and would get frustrated. I would just stop and declare 'I can't do it.” My dad would reply, 'You're right, you can't.”

Of course this got me flustered to the point where I just left the room and cried. Yup, I was that kid who got upset when they did something wrong.

I didn't realize until recently my dad was right. He always said, 'If you tell yourself that you can't, then you can't.” Simple as that.

If I believe I'm going to do poorly on the math test, I will. I always thought my dad was just saying that to get me upset, but I thought to myself, why would Dad do that? But it occurred to me my dad taught me to trust in myself. He engraved that into my brain.

My dad's not a philosophical man by any means, He just taught me what his parents taught him. That's what he knows and thinks is morally correct. I will do the same thing he did and teach that same thing to my kids at a young age.

Everything has a deeper meaning, and I learned this later than I should have. My dad's been telling me this for 17 years - that's a long time. Parents teach their children so many valuable life lessons, and I was once told the best lessons are the ones you don't remember learning.

What I can or can't do is up to me. The only person who can decide that is me. Sure, other people can make decisions for me, but it's up to me to follow through. People can tell me what to do, whether or not I do it is my choice. People can influence my thoughts and decisions, but should I let them influence me?

I believe that I have control of my future. I believe everyone can tell me what to do, but I'm the one who makes decisions for myself.

I believe I should have dreams for myself, and I should chase them for as long as I live.

I believe people will try to hurt and destroy me, but I can't let them stop me.

I believe I am the only one who can decide how I feel, what I say, what I don't say, what I want, need, love, what I think or don't think.

Only I have to power to make my life amazing.