It may seem like a weird thing to thank you for. For most of the time you were a part of my life, I was thanking you for all the good you brought to it. However, times have changed. For someone who used to bring me so many smiles, laughs, love, and happiness I look back and that version of you in my life has become a distant memory. A “someone who I used to know” for lack of better phrase.

Those who are close to you have the most power to hurt you because you care so much. That’s the difference. Pain is one of those things that is so easily misunderstood by those who inflict it. To them, they hurt you and go on, not knowing what parts of you they drag around behind them. In the past year of my life, I’ve experienced enough pain from those around me I loved most to last my whole lifetime…and the thing about it is, it will. I am changed, and the scars they have left on my heart are forever mine now.

For the longest time, I commonly used the phrase “I’m broken” or “I will never be the same.” I was right and wrong. I will never be the same, that is true, but broken? No. They did not break me. Those who have left have only made me stronger in the end. They broke me down, and it put me in the position to have to build myself back up because they were no longer around to help me do it.

So for that I say, thank you.

Thank you for helping me find my way to the people around me that matter most. For seeing the people that were really the true friends in my life when you were just a placeholder for their arrival. You brought me my family.

Thank you for giving me a better understanding of people. For being able to see who is genuine and whose motives for wanting to be in your life are fake.

Thank you for allowing me to see the beauty in myself. After spending so much time with just myself, beating myself up for things I started to believe because of your influence in my life, I have found my real self. My real and beautiful self. I can finally see that I am your loss, you are not mine.

Thank you for showing me the great friend that I am. While it was so easy for you to give up on me, I would have never given up on you. Your departure only makes me want to hold the ones I love closer to my heart. Through the ups and downs you may experience with them, no one is disposable.

Lastly, thank you for making me strong. If it hadn’t been for the marks you left behind, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Fighting my way back up from the place you left me was a fight from hell, and I did it. I did it without you, and I am better for it.

Pain changes people, and change is good. So thank you for the pain, and I wish you all the best.