Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II (9 page)

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Authors: Jack Canfield,Mark Victor Hansen,Kimberly Kirberger

BOOK: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II
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speaking engagements, and brilliantly coordinated all of Jack's speaking, travel and radio and television appearances while we were compiling this book and for successfully running the
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Speakers Bureau.
Rosalie Miller, who kept all the communication flowing smoothly throughout the project. Also, thanks just for being you, Rosalie, cause ''you" are great!
Veronica Romero, Robin Yerian and Lisa Williams for handling everything else in our offices so that we could concentrate on completing this book.
John Reiner, who nourished our bodies and souls with his exquisite food during the final weeks of the project.
Larry and Linda Price, who in addition to keeping Jack's Foundation for Self-Esteem operating smoothly, continue to administrate the Soup Kitchens for the Soul Project, which distributes thousands of
Chicken Soup for the Soul
books free each year to prisoners, halfway houses, homeless shelters, battered women's shelters and inner-city schools.
Peter Vegso at Health Communications, Inc., for believing in this book and for working hard to put it into the hands of millions of readers. Thank you, Peter!
Lisa Drucker, Matthew Diener, Christine Belleris, and Allison Janse, our editors at Health Communications, for their generous efforts in bringing this book to its high state of excellence.
Randee Goldsmith, our
Chicken Soup for the Soul
project manager at Health Communications, Inc., for her masterful coordination and support of all the
Chicken Soup
projects.
Terry Burke, Irene Xanthos, Jane Barone, Lori Golden, Kelly Johnson Maragni, Karen Bailiff Ornstein and Yvonne zum Tobel, the people at Health Communications who are responsible for selling and marketing all our books. You guys are always a pleasure.
To Kim Weiss at Health Communications, for all her

 

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wonderful PR work and for being such a total pleasure to work with. To Ronni O'Brien and Larry Getlen at Health Communications, for getting us such great television, radio and print coverage.
Craig Jarvie at Health Communications, for his ever-present support and patience.
Kelly Garnett, Carol Kline, Diana Chapman and Irene Dunlap, who edited some of the more difficult pieces into wonderfully moving stories. Thanks for being so talented and so fast at what you do! You are extraordinarily talented writers.
Marci Shimoff for sharing all her great ideas with us.
Lisa Gumenick, Lisa Rothbard, Lia Gay, Hana Ivanhoe, Bree Abel and Jamie Yellin for all the experience and wisdom they have shared with us. We carried it with us into this book and we will cherish it forever.
Thanks to Kim Foley for being the best friend Kimberly has ever had.
The following people, who read the original manuscript, helped us make the final selections and made invaluable comments on how to improve the book: Fred Angelis, Russell Bredlow, Brian Deol, Peter Doerksen, Vickki Dyakovetsky, Brigette English, Kim Foley, Rachel Friesen, Jessica Gardner, Lia Gay, Manjeet Gill, Laurie Hanna, Stephanie Horner, Hana Ivanhoe, Jan Kirberger, Jared Kuehl, Darcy Kuhn, Katie Leicht, Chad Loewn, Mandy Martens, Katrina Mohr, Prett Pandher, Sat Pandher, Lisa Rothbard, Meredith Rowe, Bindu Sidhu, Ravi Sidhu, Jill Toma, Jen Tredall, Julianna Tyson.
We also received feedback from Vertes Andersen's classes at Centerville Junior High in Centerville, Utah. Their comments and grades were instrumental in helping us make the final selections. At the end of this project we had another fifty stories that were possibilities for the book. With only days left to make final decisions, Amy

 

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Johnson's class at Oak Hill High graded the final stories and helped us make those selections. The cartoons in the book were voted on by the students at Torrey Pines High and La Costa Canyon High, both in San Diego, California.
We are very grateful to all the students who helped us because it was their feedback that made this book what it is. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
John and Shannon Tullius, Sam Horn, John Saul, Mike Sacks, Bud Gardner, Dan Poynter, Bryce Courtney, Terry Brooks and all our other friends at the Maui Writer's Conference and Retreat who inspire and encourage us every year.
All of the
Chicken Soup for the Soul
coauthors, who make it a joy to be part of this
Chicken Soup
family: Patty Aubery, Marty Becker, Ron Camacho, Tim Clauss, Irene Dunlap, Patty Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Carol Kline, Hanoch McCarty, Meladee McCarty, Nancy Mitchell, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte, Marci Shimoff, Barry Spilchuk and Diana von Welanetz Wentworth.
Thanks to the over twenty-five thousand people who submitted stories, poems and other pieces for our consideration. You all know who you are. While most of the pieces you submitted weren't used in the book, each and every one inspired and moved us.
Because so much goes into a project like this, we probably forgot to thank some very deserving people and for that we apologize. Please know in your hearts that we are grateful and very aware that a project like this is the result of lots of hard work and, without a doubt, the blessing of God.

 

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INTRODUCTION
Dear Teenager,
Shortly after the release of
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
, we began to receive hundreds of letters a day. Those letters contained submissions of stories and poetry, wonderful thank-yous, and, last but not least, a request for a second book "as soon as possible." We heard you and we have responded!
We are, of course, proud of the success of the first book. In fact, it made a
Chicken Soup
record for being the first book to reach sales of 3 million copies in its first year. But our real happiness lies in our admiration and appreciation of you, the teenagers, who bought the book. You were the ones who showed the world that if a book is written that honors and respects you, you will respond in a positive way. We think that says a lot about who you are.
As was the case in the first book, we have included stories that deal with issues that concern you. Even though we couldn't use all the stories that were sent to us, we did pay attention to the issues that were contained in them. You wrote to us about losing a boyfriend or girlfriend and the recovery that followed; you wrote about how painful it is when a friendship ends or friends move in different directions. You wrote about the death of loved ones and

 

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the painful process of learning about and dealing with a friend being diagnosed with cancer.
You wrote about performing acts of kindness and how wonderful you felt afterwards and about how others' acts of kindness toward you touched you deeply. And, of course, you wrote about growing upyou are growing and learning so fast that it takes writing it down, or reading someone else's account of it, to see who you are and where you are going.
These are the stories you will find in this book. They are your storiesyour triumphs and your tragedies, your heartaches and your breakthroughs, your insights and your discoveries, and your awareness that being a teenager is a journey. It is a journey of becoming your best self.
It is our hope that you will love this book as much, if not more, than the first. It is your book, there for you to read when you need some cheering up or when you simply need to be reminded that you are by no means alone on the journey.
How to Read This Book
Read this book however you want to, from beginning to end or jump around. If there is a particular chapter that speaks to your concerns or that you have a special interest insuch as On Relationships or On Familyfeel free to go there first.
We encourage you to return to this book again and again, much like the way you would call on a friend. We received the following e-mail from
[email protected]
after he had finished
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
.
I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for this great book. I read it all the time and it really has become my best friend.

 

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While we hope the book as a whole will touch you deeply, you may find that one story in particular will change your life. Kim Price wrote to us about a story that touched her that way.
The story, "I Love You Dad," deeply touched my soul. Never had anything made me think how important my dad is to me.
Kim wrote him a letter after reading the story and he wrote back a beautiful reply that she says,
. . . boosted my confidence in myself and my love toward my family. . . . I haven't been afraid to tell people how much I care about them. I hope your stories have touched other people's lives in the way they have touched mine.
Let These Stories Help You Grow
Many of the letters we received told us how you changed something about yourself after reading a story. Diana Yarmovich wrote to us about an incident she was involved in at her school. She told us how she and some of her friends were teasing a fellow classmate and calling her gay. They were given the "punishment" of going around to different classrooms and talking about words ending in -ism, (i.e., racism, ageism and sexism). She went on to say,
The story "Betty Ann" helped me realize how the other girl felt. I now realize how wrong I was.
In another letter, Melissa Moy writes,
Every day the world looks different to me. In the morning I wake up feeling sure of myself, something that I have never experienced before. Remarkably, this book has also expanded my compassion for others.

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