I hope you enjoy it! It was the spring of I was sixteen, just about to take my GCSE exams, struggling with anxiety and low self-esteem and trying to work out who I was and what I wanted to be in a family who had already decided for me. I was a talented artist and wanted to study fine art at a college in London.
My artistic skills had won me an art scholarship, making it affordable for my parents who had grown up in large families with little money in the East End of London and left school with only a handful of O-levels between them. It was a dream for them to have a child at such a prestigious school. I rarely rebelled, broke curfews or answered back. I did my homework and begrudgingly completed my chores.
I also spent hours alone in my bedroom, decorated with black and white Athena posters, sulking after disagreements with my parents. How can I help? Nobody told her anything different. It took years for her to develop self-confidence and to pursue her own path in life, one that led to writing rather than art — but still, a creative career that teen Sarah would likely have been steered away from.
Why am I telling you all this? Try to think of a time between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one, when you felt similarly misunderstood or unsupported by your parents or carers.
Take a piece of paper or use your electronic device and write a few sentences about what was happening at that time in your world. For now, however, just acknowledge that there were always underlying feelings beneath your so-called problematic behaviour as a teen, and often they revolved around not being understood or supported by those closest to you.
