To The Person Learning To Stand Up For Yourself,

Welcome to one of the hardest fights of your life. I am not saying that to intimidate you or scare you, but I am just being honest.

This is a battle I face every single day. For most of my life I was pretty much addicted to pleasing people, and unfortunately this lead to a lack of boundaries. This then leads to people walking all over me. I taught people it was okay to treat me as if I did not matter. Let me tell you: a lack of boundaries will always lead to a lack of respect.

I found myself constantly asking why I was not good enough. I cried myself to sleep over people who did not spend one second thinking about me. I poured all of my heart and soul into people who did not respect me at all.

It is easy to feel as if standing up for yourself makes you a mean person but I promise you it does not. I struggle with remembering this myself.

Standing up for yourself is one of the most freeing and liberating things you can learn how to do in this life. If someone in your life is scared off by you asking for respect, then they do not need to be in your life.

Standing up for yourself puts boundaries in place, which then invites respect. In today's society, we pretty much have to demand respect. Common courtesy is not common anymore. More than likely you are one of the kindest people in your friend group and family, and because of that this world will hurt you (if you continue to not stand up for yourself).

Please start putting yourself first. Start seeing yourself as valuable. Standing up for yourself allows negativity to leave and positivity to enter. People whose intentions are not good will not stick around for this new journey in your life.

You see, you really are starting a new life when you start standing up for yourself. You are becoming a new person in a lot of ways. The first few times are so frightening. You will question if you made the right decision and if you came off as rude. However, I am here to tell you: you made the right decision.

Standing up for yourself does not make you rude, cocky or mean. It makes you brave. It makes you wise. It makes you worth it.

I am proud of you for starting this journey. I am proud of you for giving genuine people a chance to enter your life. I am proud of you for seeing you are worth it. I am glad we are on this journey together. Because with a lot of hard work, we will win this battle for our new lives.

And always remember: your kindness should never be mistaken for weakness.