Know any Struggling Teens? Hope and an Exciting New Read
You’ve all heard the phrase, ‘When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Today’s post is about a young woman who has turned life’s challenges into writing projects. Her latest, Den: If You Don’t Want to Die, Don’t Sleep with Lions, is a #1 New Release in Teen and Young Adult Christian Values and Virtues on Amazon! The book releases in just two days, on July 27, 2020. The author, Hope Bolinger, grew up in the same small town in Ohio that I did, we shopped at the same adorable bookstore on Main Street called the Learned Owl, and we even attended the same church, just not at the same time. Not only is she a published author of books, but hundreds of articles have her byline, AND she is also a literary agent, all before she even graduated from college! Amazing!
Most of the time this blog space is dedicated to young children, but today’s post is for the struggling teen or young adult—and there are lots out there. Times seem dark for many. What follows is Hope’s story. Do you know a teen or young adult who might be encouraged by her story, and perhaps find some solace through the written word–either through their own writing like Hope did, or maybe even Hope’s book, Den? Link to purchase is at the end of the post.
Hope Bolinger: How I Found Healing Through Writing
To say I had a rough spring semester in 2018 would be a severe understatement.
- My parents had divorced that February after 26 years of marriage, and they began dating other people in the March through April range
- A girl in my biblical prophecy class (and a close friend of my roommate’s) had committed suicide
- One of my writing professors, who had been my hero, was found guilty of sexually assaulting women for thirty plus years
- School shooting and student suicides had found their way onto the news just about every day, including a mass string of suicides at a local school in the Northeast Ohio area
Going into the summer of 2018, at my mom’s new house and whilst working five plus jobs, I didn’t know how to combat these intense emotions swirling around these events. Although I’d often considered my mom my confidant, the divorce had put a considerable strain on our relationship.
Uncertain of how to feel or what I felt, I did the only thing that made sense. I wrote.
Writing Clarifies Emotions
Flannery O’Connor once said, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”
Sometimes, we have to navigate difficult circumstances, and our brain succumbs to overdrive. We don’t know how to comprehend what has happened. Many will often seek the help of a counselor to help untangle the knot of thoughts, but when working five jobs in one summer and taking care of my mom’s dogs, I didn’t have time to squeeze in therapeutic sessions.
So I wrote.
I wrote because I felt a hurt in my chest, but I couldn’t describe it to others. So I let my characters describe it for me.
Divorce, suicides, and sexual predators appear in my books for a reason. Because I try to see how my characters would deal with the situation. How they react. After all, they are a part of me, and if they can figure it out, so can I.
Writing Can Be an Act of Worship
We have hymns and worship songs for a reason. David wrote the Psalms to navigate his emotions and praise God in the midst of the turmoil
In my own writing process, I said, “God, these are my circumstances. I don’t know how to feel about them. I know you are good, and that you will set everything right at the end. Let’s wade through these complicated topics together.”
And when one worships, one experiences healing.
Writing Heals
I often noticed in my counseling sessions back at Taylor University that once I talked out a problem, put it in a light in which I could understand it, I experienced healing.
Nothing can tear open a scab in the mind more than an unresolved problem. If we don’t know why we feel the way we feel, we can’t heal. We don’t have the cure at our disposal. We experience the symptoms but don’t know the proper medicine to take to alleviate the core issue.
But through writing, we can discover ourselves. The deepest, darkest facets that we shudder to think about in the quiet moments.
And once we understand, the wounds begin to seal. To stitch themselves back together.
And at last, we heal.
You can check out Hope’s exciting new novel here:
Sonja Anderson