Rice Picker Entertainment

I came back from my church’s annual youth retreat as a counselor and not knowing what to expect.  I have to say that this was by far my favorite camp out of the past seven I’ve gone to.  I think the main reason is because God really showed me something important.  You see this whole summer I’ve been a counselor for 2 camps; one camp was at school for 3 weeks and the other was the church camp.  Through the four weeks of being a counselor, my eyes were opened (hehe, Asian joke) to truly love and care for others.

Now I’ve been reflecting upon my past and let me tell you, I had issues.  I was young, naive, and ill-tempered.  I went through a time of spiritual doubt, some depression, and alienation.  Some of you may know the rough past I had, but to most of you this may be hard to believe; you all will see that I have a really dark side.  I honestly don’t know how I could have gotten to where I am today without God’s grace.

I look back at these actions I’ve done and think to myself “what the heck?”  I certainly was very immature then.  During my “dark phase”, probably 8th grade onto freshman year of college, I took advantage of the new social media and tried to use it in my favor of voicing who I thought I was.  In all honesty, it was a cry for attention.  Anger and sadness controlled my actions on the Internet and I’m sure I hurt a lot of close friends which led to alienation and a doubtful phase.  Along with the abuse of the Internet, I talked trash behind these people’s backs.  These were probably some of the stupidest actions I could’ve done socially.  However in bad times there is some good.  This good happened to be God’s plan.  Through the long trial I endured, God has brought me out of the darkness.  Something that God has shown me to get out was to be bold; I needed to be confident in who I was.  A part of the reason I used the social media to voice myself was because I was very quirky and timid about showing the real Tyler Tang.  Of course this happens through time and maturation; the whole reason why I laugh at my immature dark phase.

I want to give all of you reading this some advice.  First of all, you can get out of the trouble.  I went through the darkness and here I am now writing for you all.  Second, be patient.  God will guide you through the trials.  It may take a week or it may take years, but be certain that God will end your suffering of that trial; just be aware there’s always bumps in the road.  Finally just know that you’re not alone.  We may not all have the same problems, but if you read all the stuff I’ve just written, then know that your dark phase will cease.  However if you dealt with the Internet abuse like what I did, be aware that the things you posted cannot be permanently deleted.  It may be gone in your area, but it’s archived elsewhere.  The posts may haunt you, but don’t let the messages you’ve written let you down.  Look back to those as a milestone to where you are now on God’s path.  To close I would like to say I am sorry to anyone who I may have hurt because of any past posts.