Confidence has always been a struggle for me. I never had the respect and love for myself that I needed to be happy. No matter what the situation was, I always felt that I was not going to be good enough and this mindset is what held me back from so many experiences.

I have always been the kind of person who gave out unlimited chances to people no matter how many times they broke my trust. With white knuckles, I held on so tightly to relationships that were doing nothing but hurting me. I didn't acknowledge when someone was not treating me how I deserved to be treated because honestly, at the time I didn't know what I deserved. I poured myself into relationships without restraint hoping that one day, they might care enough to do the same. There came a point where I realized that I had nothing left to pour. I had hit rock bottom.

From the bottom, things became more clear. While down there, I realized that my life had not been going how it should be for a long time now.

Fortunately, there was nowhere to go but up. All I had to do was figure out what in my life needed to change to get there. Of course, the first thing that needed changing was my mindset. Once I mastered the art of positive thinking, I realized that the only way to remain in that mindset was to change my surroundings to match. Unfortunately, this meant that some people had to go.

Something I have recently realized to be true is that in life, you become a direct reflection of the people that you surround yourself with. Knowing this, it would only make sense to surround yourself with people that you admire, respect, and strive to be like. You should be around people who have similar priorities as you and who are just as passionate about their goals and ambitions as you are. Surrounding yourself with this kind of positivity is the only thing that is going to help you to become the best version of yourself that you can possibly be.

Letting go of the toxic people in my life and the negativity that came with them became inevitable.

To me, toxic people are the ones who are always trying to compete with you. The friend who likes to break you down just when you are starting to feel comfortable again, just so they can remain in the spotlight. The guy who pretends that he cares and convinces you that he means it this time only to walk all over your trust once again. Toxic people are those who can talk to you about their problems for hours, but as soon as you say anything about yourself, they're suddenly uninterested in the conversation.

Those people do not care about you and never will. No matter how many times they say they care about you, if you don't feel it in how they act, then it is not true. I was blind to this for a long time. I let too many people walk all over me for the simple reason that I was too scared and unsure of my reasoning to walk away. Things have changed and now I know that I never needed a reason in the first place.

You do not have to justify walking away from anything or anyone that makes you feel that you are less than you are.

So at that realization, I said goodbye. I said goodbye to anyone who I felt was a roadblock between where I am now and where I want to be. I said goodbye to those who were self-destructing and bringing me down with them. I cut out the people who I felt were always somehow involved when my life went spiraling downhill.

The number of people left in my life after doing this was small. Yet, somehow, I am happier than I have been in a long time. That is when I learned that the quality of the people in your life, is much more important than the quantity.

After leaving certain people in my past, everything began to change. I no longer found myself in toxic situations that did nothing but make my life worse. I pushed myself harder in school and work and became more like the person that I want to be. Opportunities arose and new doors opened that I was brave enough to walk through with my head held high because there was no one to dull my confidence.

Letting go of people who do nothing but hold you back is not selfish, it is necessary.

So to the person who always had to talk over me, to the friend who valued attention over our friendship, to the guy who I was only good enough for at his convenience, to everyone who has treated me less than I deserve...

This was not an apology.