A Teen's Perspective ~ REJUVENATING & RESTARTING YOUR LIFE...*Realizing that it's time for a complete change...

I looked around recently and instantly saw the pile of junk and superfluous mountains of paper. It was time to clean.

From a young age, my mom always used to bring a huge garbage bag into my room and happily announce, “It’s time to clean!”

I would look at her with horror-filled eyes, thinking about how in just a few seconds she would be throwing away my unneeded Happy Meal toys. I thought my mom's actions were cruel.

But, thinking back now, I realize that my mom was just trying to steer me away from becoming a pack rat, and she was also teaching me something about simplifying life.

Just last week I looked at my desk area, my file cabinet, my closet, my room, and my life in general -- you know, the way teens like to do. And I noticed the following:

*My desk was completely covered with everything from papers to knick-knacks, and it was a complete eyesore.

*My file cabinet was just a nasty mess… unfiled folders stuffed with all kinds of things.

*My closet had clothes on the floor, and clothes hung up any which way.

*My room… oh my gosh my room… well, at least you could still see the floor...

I had a sudden sort of epiphany in the middle of the night, and I realized that I was going to clean up and stay cleaned up.

Right away, I began to clear my desk (the surface and interior) and my file cabinet. Although it took a while, eventually I managed to fill up two entire garbage bags with "junk" and other things I no longer used or needed.

Then, still in a cleaning mood; I cleaned my room. Every inch.

Starting with my bureau and then moving to my closet, I saw clothes I hadn’t worn in years; and put them in a bag to give away to charity, which is what my parents have always had me do.

It took hours of hard work and perseverance, yet I knew it had to be done.

While I was physically cleaning, I was also mentally cleaning.

I knew that for so long I had "put up a front," and I wasn’t really me. I was still a little girl, and it was time to become a young woman who would be going off to college soon.

While I know I’m not completely changed and I realize that being 15 doesn't exactly make me a grown-up (I'm still working on getting my driver's permit!); people around me and those close to me have said that there is something different about me.

I'm feeling extremely refreshed and renewed...

Reflecting on all of this, I can now see that I was like a caterpillar for SO long; but now I feel as if I'm a radiant butterfly, getting ready to explore everything around me!

I’ve come out of my cocoon, and I’m ready to discover the world!!!

Adios!

Danielle

"It isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts." -- Ella Fitzgerald

Danielle M. Biggs

High School Student

Danielle Biggs is a high school student who has always believed and focused on balancing her high academic achievement with co-curricular enrichment activities, including two favorites: dance and theater/performance, which she’s done since the age of two and a half. Danielle and her mom began drafting her college resume in middle school so that they would easily recall activities to include once the time came to finalize the resume – she sent out her first copy to a university just recently! Danielle lives in New Jersey with her parents, Terence and Sharon, and credits her love for family, community service, education, leadership, being an entrepreneur, and regular involvement in sound co-curricular activities to her parents and other adult relatives & close family friends; whom she says she has watched excel in these same areas throughout her life.