From Average to Awesome: Lessons for Living an Extraordinary Life

 

 

 

Chapter 12

Don't Expect Everyone to Applaud Your Awesome Efforts

 

I don't place too much emphasis on what others think of me; being respectful and kind to others, letting go of the past and the things I cannot change, are far more important.

—TINA M. GREENE, BINGHAMTON, NY

 

I can easily recall many of the valuable lessons my mother and grandmothers poured into my head over the years. Unfortunately, my brain must have been on vacation when they warned me that not everyone was going to like me—and how their dislike could affect me, if I let it. I completely missed that one.

Like most teens who endured acne, high-water pants, awful plaid-and-stripe combinations, braces, jokes about weird-looking body parts, parent-contrived haircuts, ...