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"If you think your parents expect a lot of you, imagine what it&amp;#039;d be like to have all of America watching to see what you&amp;#039;ll make of yourself. That&amp;#039;s what life is like for a Kennedy. From President John F. to Senator Ted, you&amp;#039;ve heard the Kennedy name a thousand times. But despite being born into a political dynasty, Bobby Kennedy Jr. shows us that there&amp;#039;s more than one way to leave a mark on the world. It&amp;#039;s not a matter of if we&amp;#039;ll make history, but rather how. Growing up in the 1960s, Bobby Jr. watched his dad, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, fight for the equal rights of minorities. But in 1968, four years after he helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that made segregation illegal, RFK Sr. was assassinated at a hotel in Los Angeles. Feeling pressure to follow in his dad&amp;#039;s footsteps, Bobby Jr. graduated from both of his father&amp;#039;s alma maters\u2014first Harvard, then the University of Virginia Law School. But with such huge shoes to fill, it&amp;#039;d be easy for anyone to trip and fall . And Bobby Jr. did. In his 20s, he developed a heroin problem. And in 1983, he was arrested for drug possession. Yet, as if by fate, his mistake led him back to his father&amp;#039;s cause\u2014 fighting for our civil rights. Sentenced to community service, Bobby Jr. went to work in New York state cleaning up the Hudson River.  It was there that he realized our basic rights to clean air and water were being stolen by sewage plants, dry cleaners, and factories that were polluting the water. After filing successful lawsuits against all of them, he knew that he&amp;#039;d found his mission in environmental activism. And today, as the chief prosecuting attorney for the environmental group Riverkeeper and as senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) , Bobby Jr. has forced polluters to pay around $4 billion for their crimes. We all mess up sometimes. But as I work toward my degree at New York University, Bobby Jr. reminds me that I have the power to turn my &amp;quot;uh-oh&amp;quot; moments into &amp;quot;ah-ha!&amp;quot;s. Nicole Liao: What were you like when you were a teenager? Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: I had a sense of adventure. I loved to travel. My dad took us to all the white-water rivers out West and taught us how to kayak. We&amp;#039;d always visit local Indian tribes because that is a critical legacy of our country. We&amp;#039;d also go to museums and look at fossils and learn the history of an area. NL: What did you learn from your father about success that you still use today? RFK Jr.: That success isn&amp;#039;t measured by how much power or money you accumulate, but by how you serve others.  NL: When did you first realize that you had a passion for protecting the environment and keeping it clean? RFK Jr.: When I was 7 years old I announced that I was going to write a book about pollution. I didn&amp;#039;t get around to it until I was 29, but I always recognized that pollution was a theft. That it was a way of stealing something from the public-the common earth. NL: You&amp;#039;ve turned your passion for the environment into power. How does fighting for a cause lead to success? RFK Jr.: If you work hard at anything, you&amp;#039;re going to experience some success. And the greatest gift is when you have something you really love to do and you can integrate that into your work life. I feel like it&amp;#039;s a real privilege that I get to do something that is good for my community and good for the world. But it&amp;#039;s also pleasurable for me. NL: You went through a very public arrest for drug possession. What advice would you give a girl who feels like she&amp;#039;s made a mistake that&amp;#039;s ruined her future? RFK Jr.: A lot of life is about trying to turn bad experiences into something good. Usually if you work at it you can figure out a way to do it. Even our worst misfortunes are gifts. NL: How can a girl avoid making bad choices in the first place? RFK Jr.: Sometimes life looks so desperate that you feel that you have to take some dramatic action to escape from your problems, like run away from home or take a drug. But a lot of times you just should do nothing. That doesn&amp;#039;t mean you shouldn&amp;#039;t take some positive action, but when we&amp;#039;re tempted to take destructive actions to transform ourselves it usually gets us into more trouble. NL: You had a huge legacy to live up to. How can I handle my parents&amp;#039; expectations but still go after what I really want? RFK Jr.: There were a lot of years that I was trying to do things that other people wanted me to do. But you have to follow your heart. Believe that you have a unique group of talents and abilities that are going to allow you to accomplish something in an area that interests you. Work at that and try to make some kind of contribution to your community. NL: There are so many problems in the world that seem impossible for a teen girl to take on. How can a girl like me help solve a problem she cares about? RFK Jr.: Get involved with a local group. Like, if you get involved with a local environmental group, you&amp;#039;ll quickly see that you can make a huge difference and have a real impact on your community and ultimately on the nation as well. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/advice/a9221/robert-f-kennedy-jr-nov06/>