Throughout my life, I know I have made mistakes. And I have had so many friends and family members that tell me they don't support my decision(s), and at the time it seemed like they were doing it because they didn't like me or didn't love me. But they say hindsight is 20/20, and looking back, I've realized that their lack of support was probably a good thing. And I'm thankful to them for that.

But this is not about them.

This is about the people who have not supported the good decisions I have made and still don't. Things like my major, my tattoo's, my relationship, my wedding, and so many more things that I have made decisions on, that were good decisions.

This is not intended to call those people out. This is not intended to make drama. This article has an entirely different intention.

This article is to thank those people.

You see, without people I care about being entirely unsupportive of my positive life changes, I have realized who the real friends I have are. I have realized that I don't need everyone else's support and approval to be happy, and I've taught the people who don't support me that I don't need them and their negativity.

I've realized that the people who deserve to be in your life are not going to always agree with the way you achieve your happiness, but I've also learned that your happiness is yours alone, and nobody else deserves the right to take that away from you.

So, to the friend who disapproves of my tattoo's and piercings, thank you. Your lack of acceptance for my personal journey to body acceptance and positivity and just proven to me why I need to always take care of myself because nobody else will.

To the friend who has nothing but negative things to say about my wedding and the way it's being planned, thank you. You helped me see that I don't need your irrelevant opinions about my wedding and that my wedding day has nothing to do with anyone but me and my future husband.

To the friend who said my growth in this area made me a bad friend, thank you. You helped me see that growing and making positive changes in my life won't always make everyone else happy, but you also showed me that I don't need everyone else to be happy with myself and my life decisions.

So, thank you to every single one of you who has not supported me along the way, for being my greatest motivation to continually grow and succeed, despite your selfishness and negativity towards it, because you never realized that your negativity only pushed me closer and closer to who I am meant to be.