There are many reasons why a person develops trust issues. They've been hurt too many times before. Or maybe the people you open up to do not understand the weight of the things you carry around with you. Or, like in my case, a combination of both those things with the addition of a few other problems. But I am not here to merely tell you my story. I am here to make it known that for whatever reason, it is okay that you have trust issues.

Above all, and before anything, you have to realize that it is okay that you are not an open book. You are not a coffee table book in a heavily trafficked coffee shop where people can come in, rifle through the pages of your life, and leave without saying a word. Your past, present and future does not belong in the public domain, people cannot just use it whenever they please. No, you are like a precious leather-bound book written by an age-old scholar that can only be seen in a museum, and can only be handled with the gentlest of hands. And you and you alone have the right to turn the pages, to let the reader know more of your story. And you can close it whenever you wish. No one is obligated to know your scars, your bruises, heck, even the things you are proud of.

So you have been hurt before. There have been people who rushed in, tore open your pages and rifled through them like a frantic college student the night before an exam. And they left you dog-eared and stained, disrespected. I am here to tell you that won't be the last time. Your whole life, you will have people come in and out of your life who are not worthy of holding your precious binding in their hands, whose hands will bend and crack under the weight of your story. But know that is not on you. You did not choose what is written in your book, the events that make you cry in the dead of night and the words that stick to your soul like thistles. The words you carry within your pages are not a burden, they are a part of you. So, if and when you choose to make your contents known, they will not always be accepted. But that is not your problem, that is all theirs, for not recognizing what a priceless life form they have before them.

There have been many times when you have considered giving up. Trust me, I know. Not two weeks ago I was in ruins over trusting someone with my heart who did not deserve it. My advice to you is let yourself fall. Let yourself crumble into a thousand pieces. You deserve to be upset. How dare someone break your heart and betray your trust! So let yourself be upset, angry even. But do not stay that way. Let hope fuel you. "What hope?" you may be asking me. The hope that one day, when you let someone handle your leather-bound book with splotches of ink across the pages that contain your life's story, that someone will not betray you. They will look at your scars spread out before them and say to themselves, "This is a beautiful human being who is trusting me with her heart." You may not have encountered this yet, but as someone who went her whole life believing it doesn't exist, I can tell you, it is a true thing. Not only will this person's life be more enriched by knowing your pages, but you will be able to be at peace, knowing that there are indeed people worthy of your trust.