To the people who make me feel small:
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
I have been told since a young age that I cannot let other people define me, but the older I get the harder it has become. I allow people to label me with words that I would never choose to describe me. Words such as “idiot,” and “dumb blonde.” Words that make anyone question their self-worth and what they really deserve. People say that words do not hurt, but they have never heard your words. They have never been pushed until they have to go close their door, turn off their lights and cry. They have never heard your name calling or your quick-witted one liners that leave a nasty taste in the back of a throat. They have not been damaged by words. The saddest part about these harsh words that have slipped into my life is that I uncontested admit them to become a part of me. I let them win.
Therefore by letting the words win, I let you win. I let you berate and belittle me, until I don’t know what to believe anymore. I look into the mirror and I do not see myself, I see your words tattooed to my forehead. Labeling me. Changing who I am because eventually I will stop seeing myself for me, because you have told me enough times that I am not special. You have told me enough times, which eventually will lead me to evolve and become how you want me to see myself because I have been weak.
Today is your last day.
Today I will be stronger. When you decide to make me feel small, I will not do the same to you, but I will just leave. I will not try to hurt you back, no matter how much you have hurt me because I know that no one deserves to be unhappy because of someone else’s opinion. I am better than the words you have decided to string along with my name and I will not give you or those words a reason to believe what you have said about me is true.
And thank you. Thank you for showing me that I deserve much more in life than your approval and your friendship. That I do not need someone like you in my life to only make me feel bad, when you should be building me up. Thank you for showing me who my true friends are, the people who would never hurt me because they are not happy with themselves. Finally, I want to thank you for showing me the strong independent woman I actually am because without you, I would have never known what I am capable of.
