If-

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings- and not lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And- which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!

~ Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your cool when people talk badly about you and not return their hatred
If you can have confidence in what you believe in, but still have an open-mind to the beliefs of others

If you can give yourself license to dream, but not forget what is presently going on around you
If you can build yourself up from nothing

If you can take a chance, lose everything, start over again and keep it private
If you can find the inner strength to keep going even when there doesn't seem to be a way

If you can mingle with other people, both "popular" and otherwise, and not lose track of who you are
If you can find in within yourself to forgive those who have made you angry

Then you can strive to fulfill your full potential and even if you want to "grow up faster", you've already grown up

:)

 

x Angela