To the people who doubted me,

I want to say thank you.

Thank you for letting me prove you wrong and thank you for letting me realize your opinion never mattered.

You were my motivation to accomplish everything I could. You never believed I could get to where I am today, and because of that, I pushed myself harder to make sure I succeeded.

There were many people in my life who told me I couldn't reach for my goals. They told me I wouldn't make it through college or even do well, though I did very well in high school. Look at where I am now though: I'm going into my senior year of college with one major and three minors. I have been working hard to accomplish my goals and graduate on time with a degree that I'll be happy with.

There were people that told me the pieces of literature I had written would never amount to anything. Within my years at college, I had professors and fellow students say that my writing inspired them or was good enough to get published. I may have been immature and unorganized with my writing when I was younger, but I worked on my skills and found how to express my voice. Now, I'm a writer for Odyssey and able to express my voice every week, as well as a writer for my college's student-run newspaper.

Those who doubted me also doubted the fact that I would ever find what I wanted to do in life. And, well, they were wrong with that too. I know what I want to do with my life, but also left my options open. My main goal is to be a journalist, but I don't want to stop there. I want to be an author too. I know there will be people who doubt me. But I will try my hardest to prove them wrong, just like I always do, because proving them wrong will be a great accomplishment.

Those who doubted me never thought I would make it to where I am today. But because they didn't believe in me, I wanted to prove them wrong. I also found people who did believe in my goals and dreams just as much as I did. I stopped letting those who didn't believe in me have a say in life. I became a lot stronger and started believing in myself more because of it.

Since you doubted me, I was able to accomplish so much. I was able to set goals and reach them, then set new goals and repeat the cycle. Because you doubted me, I believed in myself. I believed that I could do anything I set my mind to. I believed that I could be my own person and do my own thing. You doubted me, so thank you for that, because if you didn't, I may not have pushed myself so hard. Thank you for letting me prove you wrong.