Dear beautiful person reading this,

You are so brave for getting out of bed today. You are so brave for existing. You are not a burden. You are so strong for fighting through your pain and for living through another day.

I know that you will be forced to face days that will be seemingly impossible to get through. With days like those, there is just too much going on at the same time and sometimes it is hard to grasp and accept reality. You want to cry, but paint a smile on your face instead, because it's easier to act like you are OK than explaining why you're not. You hide your pain from others because you're afraid they won't understand or because you don't want to bother them with your struggles.

Life keeps on throwing difficult situations at you that you aren't prepared to handle, and yet you still dive into these situations fearless. I know that it's not always easy for you to do this and you are so incredibly brave for doing so.

But sometimes, you wish that you could for once just feel all of your feelings and not have to always act like you are doing great when, in reality, you are drowning.

I want you to know that it is OK not to be OK. Let yourself feel every ounce of emotion in your body because your feelings are valid and you deserve to feel them. I know accepting what is happening hurts and that you want to push the sad, painful feelings back to the corner of your mind in order to feel them again when you're ready to handle them, and this is OK. But, I also want you to remember that it is OK to feel. It's OK to scream and it's OK to cry. It's OK to lay in bed all day if you have to. It's OK not to have the energy to get up on some days because all that really matters is the fact that you are breathing and that you are still here with us. You don't always need to be as put together as everyone expects you to be.

So please, let yourself cry if you need to. Let all of your tears stream down your face. Stay in bed under the covers all day long if you need to. Don't be ashamed of not being OK because it doesn't make you weak. Every rough experience is only going to make you stronger and it will help you face a new tomorrow. You deserve to face a new tomorrow because you deserve the chance to start over and maybe find a little happiness and joy in a new day.

I hope on the days that you don't feel OK, you remember that you are strong, loved and valuable. People do care about you and you are good enough. I hope during the times you feel like you can't make it through the day without falling apart, that you keep fighting because you have the strength in you to keep going. You are a warrior and you will make it through the worst of your days. I believe in you and I understand what you are going through because like you, I have also experienced these days and I finally learned to accept that it is OK not to be OK.

Love,

The girl who needs you here