Thanks so much. Thank you for stabbing me in the back. Thank you for telling me that my grades will never get me into a good college. Thanks for leaving me alone when I needed you most. Thank you for judging me. Thank you for telling me who I can’t be friends with. Thank you for laughing at my goals. Thanks for being there to tell me everything I did wrong. Thanks for taking advantage of my kindness. Thanks for telling me I’m getting fat. Thank you so much for trying to destroy my dreams.

I owe you everything.

I could not and would not be standing so tall today without your hate, spite, and rude comments.

You have given me the best part of myself. I was so broken down that I was given the chance to pick the parts of me I wanted to keep and leave the rest behind.

I have more strength now than I ever had before. I can take my life and see it as the beautiful gift it is. I have grown to become a happy and positive person who understands the power of perspective. The power to take a situation that would have brought me to my knees in the past and realize that it is just one moment in time versus all of the life that I have to lead. It is the courage to stand alone when the world is falling around me. It is a voice in my head that reminds me that I am an amazing person with so much to offer the world. The strength I have now is enough to hold me when in the past I would have shattered.

The people that tore me down, the ones who consciously or unconsciously made me feel like I wasn’t good enough, gave me the gift of a more brilliant life than anything I could have seen for myself. I have found the peace and joy of being alone with myself. Everyone has their own way of being alone but I have found parts of my life that provide a release of emotions in a healthy way. I write or play basketball or find myself listening to music absentmindedly. I have found these things that keep me grounded, those things I can fall back on to keep me calm and happy.

In the moment its hard to see why life throws challenges at you, and sometimes they just seem cruel. But every person has the power to find joy in their life if they keep every moment in perspective. Who would have thought I would find the absolute beauty of life in the moments I didn’t even think I would make it through?

Let me tell you, there are people who are poison. The people that stop you from being your best, whether they realize it or not. Find those people and thank them because they have given you the best opportunity in the world; to rise when everything is trying to keep you down. There is no better feeling in the world than succeeding with the odds are against you, I mean doesn’t everyone love a good underdog story? So what’s stopping you from becoming one yourself?