Hansen Mark Victor - Chicken soup for the teenage soul on tough stuff: stories of tough times and lessons learned

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CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE TEENAGE SOUL ON TOUGH STUFF

CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE
TEENAGE SOUL
ON TOUGH STUFF

Stories of Tough Times
and Lessons Learned

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Kimberly Kirberger

Backlist, LLC, a unit of

Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC

Cos Cob, CT

www.chickensoup.com
www.teenagechickensoup.com

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

copyright 2012 Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC

ISBN: 978-1-4532-7903-8 (ePub)

Cover design by Andrea C. Uva
Interior design by Lawna Patterson Oldfield

Contents

Rebecca Woolf

Tiffany Blevins

Loni Taylor as told to Cynthia Hamond

Teal Henderson

Tal Vigderson

Tyler Phillips

C. S. Dweck

Rebecca Woolf

Lisa Teller

Sarah Jacksonas told to Jennifer Braunschweiger

Jenny Hungerford as told to Susan K. Perry

Sarah Woo

Kate Reder

Kristine Flaherty

Monique Fields

Danielle Collier

Natalie Atkins

Tiani Crocker

Carrie Hill as told to Cynthia Hamond

Isabel Philley as told to C. S. Dweck

Jessica Colman

Amy Jo Johnsonas told to Linda Friedman

Traci Kornhauser

Jennifer Dalrymple-Mozisek

Catherine Starr

Analise Antone

Rosanne Martorella

Krysteen Hernandez

Iris M. Bolton

Rachael Bennett

Amanda Parmenter

Sara Preston

Garrett Drew

Jessie Williams

James Kisner

Eva Unga

Zan Gaudioso

Charlie Simmons

Jenny Deyo

Hawon Lee

Kara MacDonald

Jonathan Krasnoff

Nick Springer as told to Stephanie Booth

Phillip Thuss

Jake Repp

Christina Angeles

Michael Munds

Maggie McCarthy

Bret Anthony Johnston

Cheryl Costello-Forshey

Tal Vigderson

Jenny Michaels as told to Cynthia Hamond

Teal Henderson

Zan Gaudioso

Kristy Glassen

William Elliott

Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Jenny Sharaf

Ruth Greenspan as told to C. S. Dweck

Kelly Peters as told to Rebecca Woolf

Jessica Dubose

Kimberly Kirberger

Teal Henderson

Lauren Anderson

Meghan OBrien

Maria Piedo

Hilary Begleiter

Cassius Weathersby III

Andrea Wellman

Heather Deederly

Sara Tylutki

Claire Hayenga

David M. Romano

Kari Fiegen

Liza Ortego

Gwynne Garfinkle

Caroline Smith

William Elliott

Stephanie Hsu

C. S. Dweck

Dear Teens,

Six years ago we had the idea to write a Chicken Soup forthe Teenage Soul book for teenagers. As you know, it was very well received and millions of teens have found comfort and support in the stories that were written by their fellow teens. We received thousands of letters requesting that we compile more books for teens. These requests, combined with the deluge of stories that were being sent, gave us the needed motivation and resources to continue the series.

Every week we continue to receive hundreds of letters and stories from teenagers around the world via the Internet and through the mail. As we read the mountain of mail, we began to notice that the chapter on tough stuff was the most popular chapter in the books. After a while, we began to get requests for an entire book on tough stuff. Our response to these requests is the book you now hold in your hands.

For those of you who might be new to the Chicken Soupfor the Teenage Soul series, Tough Stuff has been a chapter in all of our previous books that included the more challenging issues and experiences of being a teenager, such as drugs and alcohol, rejection, loss of friendships and relationships, death, suicide, divorce, physical and emotional abuse, and eating disorders.

Although the content of these stories is often disturbing and sometimes even tragic, the potential for insight, learning and growing up is enormous. We believe this is the reason for the overwhelming response to these types of stories. For example, we have had stories in previous books that dealt with the death of a parent. This is one of every childs worst fears and one might question the benefit of including such stories. However, we have repeatedly heard comments such as these from our readers: After reading that story, I immediately sat down and wrote my parents a letter apologizing for giving them such a hard time. And, Though my mom and I still have our little arguments, it is different now. I appreciate her so much more and I KNOW that everything she does is because she loves me. I didnt really understand that before reading that story. We rarely print a story unless the person writing it has learned or realized something profound from their experience. Hopefully, this lesson gets passed on to you, the reader, and will spare you similar pain. At the very least, it will let you know that you are not alone in the world with your challenges.