To the girl who's been hurt one too many times:
Before anything, I want you to know it's okay to not be okay. I want you to know that it's okay to just sit in bed and cry. It's okay to have nights where you overthink everything that's gone wrong and try to figure out what you did for it to happen. I've been there more than I'm proud to admit. It's easy to fall into believing that you've been hurt because it's something you've done wrong or that you don't deserve any better, but it's so important to remind yourself that you deserve the world. You deserve nothing less than absolute happiness, and you'll be the first one to take the step to get that.
I know getting hurt so often really takes it's toll on your confidence and how you look at yourself, and it's so easy to look to others to fill that missing part of you. This, however, is only temporary. The biggest lesson I've learned is that you can't look to others to fix yourself, you have to do that on your own. You have to learn to love every part of yourself, even your flaws. At the end of the day, you have to remind yourself of why you're such a great person. There's good in all of us, and you just have to remember that. Embrace your biggest insecurities and run with it. Turn it into something you love. It's not going to be easy, I'm telling you that now. I still struggle with it, but I'm working on it and that's more than I can say about some people.
The most important thing I want to remind you of is being hurt is a blessing in disguise. Being hurt so many times builds up a wall, and the wall can end up pushing people out. Trust me, I know that so well. But that wall is also what's going to keep you safe and teach you about the warning signs of getting hurt. You know what to walk away from in the future, and you know how to tell if someone has the right intentions.
There are the trust issues, though. Plenty of them. You have to remind yourself that not everyone is like the lowlifes who have hurt you in the past. There are some people who want the best for you, and those people will make themselves known to you very fast. They'll have your back and at the end of the day, these are the only people you need. They'll constantly call you out and put you in your place, but you need that. The more honest people are with you, the easier it becomes to trust them with everything. They'll be your biggest supporters, don't take advantage of them.
The last thing I want you to know is that it's okay if you're still upset about something that happened a while ago, it really is. But you have to remember to love yourself in the midst of all of it. If you don't, you'll never make progress and become even more of the strong, beautiful girl you already are.
Love always,
The girl who's been there.
