January 29 - Sweet 16

Instead of pushing myself, I gave up at the first sign of difficulty.

When you were 16, what did you think your life would look like? Does it look like that? Is that a good thing?

Age 16 was about the time I started giving up on my dreams of going to an Ivy League school and becoming a writer. In fact, age 16 was about the time I began to give up on myself entirely. I’d had such high hopes and high expectations for myself and year after year it felt more and more unattainable. The daydream of an accomplished woman disappeared in a cloud of marijuana smoke.