To The One Who Cares Too Much,

I know you... because I am you.

When people refer to you, they refer to you as your role: "mom", "protector", "big sister", "role model". You answer to "I need you" more than you answer to anything else. Your mornings are filled with telling the people you love to enjoy their day, just to have them text back maybe 10 percent of the time. Your days are spent worrying about the well-being of everyone in your life but yourself. Helping people? Making people smile? It's something you pride yourself in. You are a kind soul. A kind person. You know that. You may not believe all of the compliments that people send your way, but the one thing that you do know for sure is that you are a person that radiates that trait. You know you are selfless, that you would drop anything for the ones you love. And they know it too-- that is explanation enough for all of the text messages, phone calls, and FaceTimes you receive throughout the day. You will stop everything you are doing to answer these messages, these calls, because you have, many times before, felt alone. And you don't want anyone to feel that way-- not if you can help it. So you give and give of yourself, consistently. Day in and day out.

It gets tiring. Sometimes, you can't help but wonder,

Is all of this effort worth it? Do they actually value me, or do they value what I can do for them?

And those thoughts can keep you up at night. Those thoughts-- they make you want to stop caring altogether.

You aren't a selfish person. I know that. If anything, you are extremely selfless. But you can't help but feel a little selfish when you find yourself in the position where you just want people to care back. People to invest back.

You don't think that's too much to ask. I know, because I don't either. After all you do for people, you think that it's only fair that they put some effort into you.

But that's the thing about caring too much-- 99 percent of the time, they won't put in that effort. You are a part of a very small percentage of people that aren't out for themselves only. And that's hard, especially when all you want is for people to be on your team, for them to be your cheerleaders, your support system. They may be there, but they don't show it as openly as you do, and that kills you. Because you care so much, you feel like they don't care at all sometimes. And that's not true, that's just a misconception. They do care, they just can't show it the same way. And the fact that you can show it in that way-- that's just one of the special things about you. You have a heart of gold, and although you think otherwise, people know that. People recognize your heart, and have grown to love you for it. Not many other people make the effort that you do-- and that's why people come to you, why they trust you.

Always keep your heart full, and keep on loving. Keep on giving. Sometimes, it's going to be tiring. And you are going to want to stop. But this is who you are. What is it achieving if you change yourself? Nothing. You have a pure heart in a world that needs more of them. Stay true to who you are-- the people in your life, although you may not know it, thank you for it.

Don't be ashamed of who you are, or of how much you love. In the long run, your kindness will make the world a better place-- whether it be your little world, or anything bigger than that.