“When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.”

Alan Paton

Forgiveness is very important. When you forgive you open yourself to the process of healing. In order for one to heal or recover or what ever else you may call it you MUST first forgive. You will grow and you will help others around you grow and heal too. Forgiveness, 11 simple letters, 1 word, a very hard action. Forgiving is very hard to do because you always want to hang on to revenge, or you will always be out to hurt the person who hurt you. Thats dumb though, there is such thing as karma that will get back 10x worse and if you don't forgive, let something go you'll just make yourself miserable. A great example of forgiveness was the one  you gave in class. It shows how she forgave the man and they both grew as people, they both got good outcome from it, most importantly they both forgave and had peace. If she wouldn't have forgiven him, they wouldn't have been able to grow, would probably hate themselves, would be depressed etc. But she forgave and now they get to help others from committing the mistake he made. They got a positive outcome of a negative situation. You forgive and you grow, let it go, but you never forget. Everything happens for a reason and no matter what everyone has a purpose in this world.

Valentine's Day

When is it celebrated?:

Valentine's day is celebrated on February 14th. This year, it will land on a Tuesday (tomorrow.) .

What are other names?:

Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an annual holiday. It is a day when you let people you love and really care for know how much they do mean to you. In places like Latin American countries valentine's day is known as “El dia de los enamorados,” or “El dia del amor y la amistad”. In Guatemala it is now as “Dia del carino.”

Description:

The earliest description of February 14 as an annual celebration of love is in the Charter of the Court of Love. Charles VI in 1400, describes lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court, including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing. At these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and rule on disputes from lovers. No other record of the court exists. Valentine days colors are red, pink, or white. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15 but Gelasius I (pope) recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St.Valentine's Day. It is to show love and appreciation.

Poetry;

Rondeau written by Charles, Duke of Orléans a poem from the 15th century is the earliest surviving valentine, written to his wife. Poetry was a big deal back in the day on valentine's day, using poetry was a way one was able to declare love or show love.

In the United States:

In the U.S 190 million cards are sent out every year, not including all the cards grade school kids exchange to one another. In the United States alone, the average valentine’s spending has increased every year, from $108 a person in 2010 to $131 in 2013.

Things one can give out: 
One can give out chocolates, candies, balloons, teddy bears, flowers that your partner/ friends/ family member to a cute dinner etc.

Challenges Teens Face Today

       Most teens are very smart but when it comes to peer pressure most give in and choose the wrong. During this time, teens go through overwhelming external and internal struggles.Several major challenges teens face today are self esteem, body image depression, drugs, alcohol, under age sex, bullying (cyber), stress, etc. Nowadays a guy wants a pretty skinny, nice figure girls, and on social media people are influenced by girls and they try to be like them. Social media is a big challenge because on it everyone pretends to be someone they aren't.  Something I deal  with are school & stress. Some people expect so much from you they, expect you to be perfect and you try to be it to please them till you're so fed up with it and you stop. You stop and take time to make sure to love yourself because there's no such thing better than self love. Being a CTR person helps because you get to see yourself as a better person. CTR is choosing the right therefore saying you are a CTR person helps because you make sure to think before you act. I can help other teens by talking to them I can help them out if they have a problem and  I know there is something I can do to change.

      The greatest need that teens have is to be loved and to find purpose in life. I believe this because with out having or seeing a purpose in living you find everything boring. By not finding a purpose in life you see everything as bad when in reality it's not. A  teen needs love. A teen needs to learn how to accept them self even if others don't by loving yourself. When you learn to love yourself you won't care what others think or say and they will start seeing you for who you are.