Or Comedian the Poet…<\/p>\n
To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you realize that if you had started building the Parthenon
\non the day you were born,
\nyou would be all done in only one more year?
\nOf course, you couldn\u2019t have done that all alone.
\nSo never mind; you\u2019re fine just being yourself.
\nYou\u2019re loved for just being you.
\nBut did you know that at your age
\nJudy Garland was pulling down 150,000 dollars a picture,
\nJoan of Arc was leading the French army to victory
\nand Blaise Pascal had cleaned up his room
\n\u2014 no wait, I mean he had invented the calculator?
\nOf course, there will be time for all that later in your life,
\nafter you come out of your room and begin to blossom,
\nor at least pick up all your socks.
\nFor some reason I keep remembering that
\nLady Jane Grey was queen of England when she was only 15.
\nBut then she was beheaded,
\nso never mind her as a role model.
\nA few centuries later, when he was your age,
\nFranz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family,
\nbut that did not keep him from composing two symphonies, four operas and two complete masses as a youngster.
\nBut of course, that was in Austria at the height of Romantic lyricism,
\nnot here in the suburbs of Cleveland.
\nFrankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15
\nor if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17?
\nWe think you\u2019re special just being you \u2014
\nplaying with your food and staring into space.
\nBy the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes,
\nbut that doesn\u2019t mean he never helped out around the house.\u201d
\n\u2014Billy Collins<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn this case, boy or girl must be interchangeable.<\/p>\n
Who was your role model when you were a teen?
\nB.K.S. Iyengar was introduced to yoga at the age of 16…
\nWhat a difference it made on his life… May we all find something, anything that makes such a profound difference for the better – an ultimate transformation over a lifetime.<\/p>\n