You’re relentlessly forgiving. You give people chances, and they let you down. It’s exhausting putting so much into everyone else, but you do it. Your relationships, friendships, your job. You see the world as this simply humane place, and you cannot imagine the cruelty of it until you experience it first-hand. Until your selflessness backfires. Your heart is broken and your trust is lost. In a few short moments, you could have decided to become very bitter at rock bottom. Instead, you scraped your way out of the hole you fell into and took back what has always been yours. Your dignity, your courage, and your life.
You fell and got back up a million and one times before you found yourself again. In a mix of screaming opinions and other people’s choices, you searched for what made you who you were and you found it. You were tired, and I’ll bet you cried once or twice. You may have felt lonely when you realized you had to cut some negative people out of your life, but that’s okay. You don’t answer to anyone but yourself. Don’t feel guilty if friends you’ve had for years had to go because they were toxic to you. Don’t be ashamed that you stayed in a bad relationship, be proud you got out. Please, don’t feel like you owe it to anyone to be exactly who you have always been. Change is empowering, and you deserve to do what you truly want without fear or judgment.
You may not think anyone sees how hard you’re working, or the strength it takes to get there. You don’t broadcast your new-found positivity, so how do people really know? Trust me, they do. Someone notices. Even if you are just at the gym one morning, sweating out all your frustration and insecurity, someone will see you and think “Damn, she’s getting it. She’s pushing herself to work the hardest and be the best.” When you stay late nights to make ends meet, one of your coworkers is thinking the exact same thing. Someone, somewhere sees you and you may really inspire them to be the best they can be too.
Through blood, sweat, and tears, you fought your way out of a terrible place. It may have hurt to let friends go, but you did it. You may have felt defeated along the way, but you held your head high. When others took so much out of you, when the universe was sending all the wrong signs, when keeping your head above water seemed like a luxury, you still came out on top. No one can take that from you.
Keep being a boss, and never give up your fight to be the best you. Let your voice be heard, show off your strength and don’t ever feel like you are small. It doesn’t matter what or who put you in that terrible place, it doesn’t even matter how you got there. You escaped it and finally chose yourself. The shiniest gems are found in the dirtiest of places but once you find them, they should never be hidden away again.
