"You owe yourself everything, and everyone else nothing." A year ago, I wouldn't have imagined myself saying this. I always believed that you had to be a nice person; you always had to be nice to everyone.

I'm not telling you to not be nice. Trust me, kindness goes a long way. But, what I'm saying is, be a nice person to yourself first. Always, always grant your own wants, wishes, and needs before someone else's because, at the end of the day, you only have yourself to be happy with.

And, maybe in the process of granting your own happiness, you'll hurt some people along the way. I know it sucks, but that's OK. You're going to be OK, and they are going to be OK.

I don't care how hard of a pill it is to swallow or how much it hurts, but anyone has the right to "ghost" you whether you've known them for two years or two weeks and you have the right to do the same.

We do not owe anyone anything in this world.

But, we do owe ourselves everything. We owe ourselves everything that makes us happy.

Sometimes you have to do things to hurt others in order to help yourself. And sometimes people are going to hurt you.

You have every right to say no. Every right to say no to dinner, every right to say no to a movie, every right to say no to sex, every right to say no to a friendship or a relationship. You have the right to say no to anything.

You have every right to say no and you have every right to say yes to yourself. Yes to a night alone after a long week, yes to a day spent with family instead of friends, yes to a day off work, yes to your mental health, yes to your own happiness.

And when you say "yes" to yourself, do not worry about what the "no" is going to do to others. Because yes, maybe it will hurt, but we all get hurt in this life. And maybe if we could all stop hurting ourselves, getting hurt would hurt just a little less.

Everyone controls their own happiness, so give yourself everything you need to be happy and let others give themselves everything they need.