For all the girls who just seemed to click with our guy friends a bit better than most girls—it's a relatable story. For a while now, it's a feeling that I'm all too familiar with. As a young girl, I clung to my father: your typical daddy's girl playing softball at the park, going to his games, seeing the Yankees first row every year, hanging with the boys outside in the mud everyday and always being the one who wasn't afraid to get a little cut up.

Obviously, as a young woman this has progressed into something different—rather than getting my kicks from gossiping I'd rather go have a beer with the guys or go off-roading in my friend's jeep. I'm the loud one who likes to joke with people all in playful fun. Often, I'm the only one chilling at the guy's house, while girlfriends are off somewhere else. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my girlfriends, but it's a different type of friendship. They're the ones I cry to, the ones I can go to about anything (you all are the best, babes!). However, coming into the person I am, I've realized I hold everything in. I have put on a harder exterior than who I really am these days because I never was that girl who got "too emotional" and I never want to become that.

However, guys started to view me differently because of this. Instead of getting upset after things not working out with someone who I really put my time into, I'd just say, "Ah, don't worry about it" and deal by just actually staying good friends rather than forgetting the person. It's my way of getting over things.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the line, "Ya know Raquel, we've been through a lot and I really love that you can hang after it all. I love a girl that can chill and let it go." Well, yup, that's the girl I've come to be viewed as. The girl who was cool with things. And as much as I appreciate myself at the end of the day for being this way and not letting the past burn bridges, it's also created a life of half-ass connections for me. I always hold back, I'm always guarded and I'm always just the girl who's "chill." The girl who smiles the most and laughs everything off. Just like those knee scrapes as a child, I brush the emotional scrapes away too.

Just because people like myself don't express our emotions how others typically do doesn't mean they aren't there. In today's society, it's become frowned upon to be invested, to show compassion and emotion. We're programmed to be cool with half-ass "relationships" or lifestyles, and this is what I'll never understand. Nothing in this world is worth our time unless we have a passion for it and our hearts feel full at the thought of it, whether it's a hobby, job or another human being making us feel this way.

Recently someone said something along these lines to me and it really stuck: "the way you approach people and treat people is something that I used to think had to do with maturity. But the older you get, you realize that some people are accountable and compassionate, and others aren't, and you're definitely a very kind and emotional, intelligent person, which has become very rare."

The more I self-reflect, the more I realize that being who I am isn't something that has to be held back. And for those who don't appreciate me—well, you just don't deserve my time.

So, from the girl who could always hang, the one who held herself in and always second guessed her emotions—I'm working on making a change, and so should those who are just too naive to notice.