Thank you.

If you have been there for me through times that I have struggled to live day to day, thank you. I know I was not easy to be around. Trust me, I couldn't stand myself on those days. I have no idea how you managed to be around me.

But know that I really appreciate you and everything you have done for me and I'm always willing to return the favor. It's possible that without your support I would not be where I am today. I honestly have no idea where I would be without any of you. You have helped me to gain more confidence than I've had in years. I've overcome things that I never thought were possible, and hearing your comments definitely helped me to continue on when it seemed impossible to do so.

When you're in a position like I was, you have basically been stripped of all confidence in yourself. You feel useless, worthless and like a complete failure. It took me a long time to realize that people who leave you feeling so broken don't deserve the joy in watching you suffer. But they deserve to see you succeed without them, to love life without them. I now try to do this. To prove to myself and to everyone else that I am strong enough to continue without people I once thought I needed in my life desperately.

Don't get me wrong, I have lost a lot of people because of my mental illnesses and my hard times. Those are the times when you learn who you can really trust. The people who are going to stand by you will, and if they leave, they never deserved you anyways. That took me ages to learn though. For the longest time, whenever somebody left, I told myself it was my fault and that I shouldn't have bothered them with my problems. However, I have learned that if they really are your friends, they're going to be there for you through good and bad times.

I have found that being confident in myself is really what helps me to stay happy and become happy in life. The more confident you are in yourself, the less you care what people think of you, the less you care what they say and the more you can be who you truly are. There are things I don't understand about life, but I know that whether I'm alone, or have someone by my side, I will make it. And I make it my job every day to prove that, not only to others, but more so to myself as a reminder.

But in the moments of being completely lost and broken, sometimes you need a helping hand up. So to those who gave me that, thank you. You have no idea how much it means to me. Life deals everyone a crappy hand once in a while, but some people are dealt them more often and for a while it felt like I couldn't get a good hand if it saved my life. Then I finally met the right people, some who stayed, who helped me boost my confidence. I found people I could confide in, which was huge for me. And I don't thank those people enough.

Thanks to those who believed in me, I am now a much stronger person. I know I can fight a battle on my own. However, the support is nice. Knowing that people care is an extremely helpful thing. So to all of you who have showed me how much you care in the past, thank you. I really appreciate everything you have done for me and the confidence you have helped me gain.