Be brave, Be confident

[jupitor]

For teenager males or parents of cleft son’s out there who are having a hard time with being borned with a clefts ... i have 5 short sentence's of wisdom from a cleft guy who had a really hard life ... #1 have all the necessary operations ... #2 don't let other's mistreat you(in other words, learn physical self-defense or mental self-defense)... #3 be confident ... #4 be brave ... #5 and lastly, be personable no matter how hard it is. You know something? it may not make any sense to some of you but i'm going to say it anyway. On the day that i realized that i was different, was the day i started to accept it thus enabling me too make adjustments. you know? all my life i felt i was the same as everyone. i fought for this feeling, physically!!! I did all i could to get that respect and I did it through fear. That's the only way i knew how back then. But you know what? How could I learn and grow when I denied the truth to how I felt? I wanted to be the same but deep down inside, I knew I wasn’t! I was fouling myself. How demoralizing is that? Like I said earlier, once I realized that I was different, life became easier. Don't get me wrong though, we sometimes have to use positive self-talk when were feeling inadequate. There is a difference. Being in denial is an inability or a refusal to admit that something exists. positive self-talk is what an individual says to himself or herself mentally. Example ... when i was in denial, i would tell myself ... "why am i treated differently, i am not different from others." today, i use positive self-talk ... "it's okay that people treat me differently, i can't control it. and plus, maybe i am different as far as appearance but deep down inside, were the same or maybe i'm even better than other's on the inside." Get out there and make your mark. There will be set-backs. We all have them whether or not were born with a cleft. It’s all about how we handle our set-backs. Good luck to all and remember … SMILE!!!!!!!!!!!!


jupitor@hawaii.rr.com