New Column!
My name is McKennaugh Kelley and I am fifteen years old. I live in Troy, Pennsylvania with a handful of crazy, creative, but mostly wonderful little brothers. I enjoy writing, so I thought I’d make a stab at seeing if I could become a columnist for Homeschooling Teen.
If you’re anything like me, you thought about your biggest dreams this morning when you woke up. Whether you are thinking about being a doctor, an airplane pilot, or going to Africa, you probably imagined everything you’d get to do when you are finally, “making your dreams come true”, and yet, today, you have to just have a normal day. Sigh.
You’re reading a favorite book, maybe catching up on some schoolwork, changing a sibling’s diaper, or drawing scribbles in the margins of some poor notebook. We think “someday” we’ll get to do this or that and we don’t think anything of today. We are always searching for tomorrow because tomorrow will be better and bigger and longer and more in order. Tomorrow we’ll work toward something, but not today. How come? How come today can’t be used for something great? Because we put it off and get into the mindset that today isn’t important and it’s okay if we waste it. Does that mean we shouldn’t ever read that favorite book or scribble in that notebook? Not exactly. I mean, who knows if you will become a wonderful artist due to those unidentifiable lumps in the margins? (Practice makes perfect – well, at least where somebody could tell that you drew a pig not a dog, right???)
Instead of thinking today is to waste, that today is just a block of waiting until you’re “older” or “smarter” or have “more money” or “more time”– use a different perspective! Maybe you can’t take the leap and accomplish your dreams just yet. However, you can work a little bit at a time, inch by inch. You might not be able to see the payoff from your work at once, it takes time. But it will happen! For example, if you want to learn a language, you can say, “someday I’ll learn it” or you can say, “I’m gonna learn three words today”. Doesn’t seem like much, though, does it? Hey! In a year that’s over a thousand words! Yikes!
Instead of wasting today, do something. If it’s not possible to work toward your dreams right now, then still don’t waste it! This moment only happens once. There was only one January 25th, 2012, and now it’s over. What did you do on that day, forever marked in history? Can’t remember? Neither can I! Gone. Done. Forgotten. We don’t want our lives to be like that!
So right now do something that’s going to make history, maybe not change the world, but it could change YOUR little world. Start today! Start living!
– McKennaugh