For most of my life, I've made excuses for the people I love who have treated me poorly. By nature, I'm a person who wants to help others, which has always caused me to give people second, third, and fourth chances that they don't deserve.

I never realized that, by continuously forgiving those who hurt me, I was showing them that their behavior was acceptable. However, in the last few months, I've come to the realization that if you don't respect yourself and your boundaries, neither will anyone else.

I won't lie; coming to that realization was difficult. It meant that I had to end relationships with people who meant a lot to me because, for the first time, I was beginning to understand the importance of making my wellbeing a priority. Still, since making that decision, I've learned so much about who I am and what I stand for.

Because of this, I want to genuinely say thank you to the toxic people I've had to let go of. Whether you meant to or not, you taught me to see the value in myself. By breaking me down and attempting to make me feel like I wasn't good enough, you pushed me to discover my own self-worth.

By giving me no other option than to walk away from a toxic situation, you taught me that I am stronger and more independent than I could have ever imagined. You may have thought you were making me weak, but in reality, I was growing in ways that even I didn't recognize at the time.

Since deciding to end the toxic relationships in my life, I've been working on reclaiming the person I once was. I spent way too long holding my breath, being defined by someone else's opinion, and stifling who I was. When I was able to once again be my authentic self, I felt like I could finally breathe freely.

I never realized how much I appreciated being able to express who I am until I felt like I wasn't able to. To anyone reading this, please know that if you have someone in mind during this article, yes, they are probably toxic; and yes, you are going to have to make the difficult decision to remove them from your life eventually.

I remember reading articles like these and knowing that the day was coming, but choosing to avoid it because I didn't feel like I was strong enough to break free. But, believe me, you are.

When you finally remove the person from your life who is bringing you down, you are going to discover a whole new perspective. In the last six months, I've learned that I love the person I am when I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not.

More than anything, I've realized that I'm so thankful to be where I am now rather than where I was this time last year.