THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR

By Travis Hardin
An Inspirational Speaker @ The Re-De-Fined Project

Here at The Re-De-Fined Project, we have had many conversations with middle and high school students over the past few months regarding bullying. The results of these conversations caused us to really think about March Madness and how we can effectively bring more information to you and your families.

As teams compete for NCAA’s Men’s and Women’s National Basketball Championship, we wanted to bring a slightly different Final Four to your attention:

-Acceptance
-Fun
-Friendship
-To Be Taken Seriously

We will look at four key areas as determined by conversations with students. These four can be very different from teen to teen however; these four kept coming up in the schools we have been involved in during the 2012-2013 school year. This blog will discuss ACCEPTANCE. We will continue with the remaining three in coming weeks as we wind down to the finals.

As leaders from The Re-De-Fined Project we hear and see a lot of things from youth. One constant is we see how these teens struggle. The one thing they struggle with most is finding acceptance in their peer group. The hardest part for them is getting into that peer group, which usually requires some sort of initiation. This journey towards acceptance by another peer group usually reveals its face in many different forms or problems.

For example, as teens struggle to find acceptance in a peer group, they might need to have sex, abuse drugs, or be athletically inclined to really be accepted.

As a parent, there are many things you can do to help your teen with this struggle. For starters, do you know where your teen struggles? How are they trying to be accepted today?

Your teens struggle for acceptance has to begin at home. As your teen finds acceptance in their home, they will find it easier to be accepted into "good" peer groups, instead of having to fight for acceptance into a not-so-good peer group.

Lastly, as your teen's parent, you have to find ways to communicate to them that they are accepted in their own home. As you identify admirable things about your teen, communicate that to them. No matter how big or small the admiration. Even if your teen says that they aren't looking for acceptance, they are. They will feel a lot of acceptance as you communicate it to them.

We encourage you to help The Re-De-Fined Project gain momentum as we speak more about what it means to “BE BRAVE.”

Pay it forward

Travis Hardin