It gets better, but you have to make it happen

My SO and I know a photographer/author/blogger/all around excellent and interesting person in Philadelphia by the name of Kyle Cassidy. He is currently working with Amanda Palmer from The Dresden Dolls on a new book project, which is being written my Neil Gaiman. Those two names involve a bit of "Squeeee!' in my brain, and I think about how cool it is that Kyle gets to meet, work with and befriend such interesting people. Kyle wrote about the experience today, and I want to highlight something from his post:

" ... then we hied back to Castle Amanda and climbed up through the cloud club, through a skylight, and onto the roof where the cool air washed over us and the city was wide open before us. i felt like i was a part of something grand. and not because of who i was with or what we were doing, but because i was alive and a great metropolis streatched before me like an awaiting tableau saying "write your life here" ... we climbed to the peak of the house and all sat in silence looking out for a while. the tempertaure was perfect.

"Since I left high school," I said, after a long, contemplative silence, "my life has been going up, and up, and up. I feel like every day is better than the one before."

"I'm happy," said Amanda, looking at me, and then out across the cool vastness, with a lone skyscraper in the distance as witness.

"Life is really wonderful," said Neil.

And sitting there, looking out over the rooftops of Boston, I thought about all the hard work -- all the crap I put up with in jr. high school -- from all those jerks who peaked in 11th grade and spent their time trying to come up with new ways to make me feel miserable, all the bad times, and how everything just seemed right now to be exactly where it should be. neil was right.

Life is really wonderful.

Work hard, believe in yourself, enable your dreams, seek out creative people. Hang on. Tenaciously. Always be a force for good. "

It's true. I've felt my life has been one climb upward since the miserable days of my adolescence. Personally I'm a lot happier than those days of aimless yearning to do something, ANYTHING! with myself. I've enjoyed the modest amount of notoriety I've achieved due to my life (from the knitting, fire and belly dancing). I haven't chased my happiness, but I've worked at it. Or really, I've worked at things I love and the happiness has unfolded from that work.

I want to print this out and hang it up and pass it along to everyone I know particularly the teenagers in my life who may need the reassurance that yes, life is amazing and it can surprise you, but you will have to put some blood, sweat and tears into it.