Reply To: Advice for a struggling MO teen

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heretohelp
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When you’re a teenager you walk a delicate path of following your parents and figuring out who you are. You have a long time to develop and grow into who you want to be. It is good to have goals and aspirations about what kind of life you’d like to live, but at the same time, there’s no reason to “despise” any of your parents’ past choices for you.

Everything that happens to you in the past is part of making who you are in the present and future. Do your best to grow and pursue the path you want while at the same time honoring your mother and father and preserving shalom bais and strong family relationships no matter how different you may eventually become. It may not seem like it now, but one day, if you have a family and are much more strict than your parents and live in a different type of community, if you’re all shomer shabbos and strict in your kashrus, you’ll realize that perhaps you’re not quite that different and that it is good to maintain strong relationships with family.

You’ve got a long time to become who you want to be. When you’re a teen, you follow your parents. They’ve given you plenty to be grateful for- you could have been born to a secular family and been sent to public school and fed bacon cheeseburgers. And yet, many balei teshuva can maintain decent relationships with their family, inspire them and grow on their own.