I have found that is so easy to turn a blind eye to people treating you less than you’re supposed to be treated. To let them rain on your parade, and cloud your judgment on self-worth. Here’s the deal: you gotta stop. To quote a common metaphor, you have to rip it off just like a band-aid. Yes, it will hurt. A lot. But as time goes on, the loss of a toxic person in your life will be like walking outside for the first time after hours of studying in the library, remembering what life was like before finals week (help me).

Letting someone toxic walk all over you is the equivalent of knowingly consuming something that is slowly killing you. (Yeah, I know doughnuts are good but they are sooo bad for your arteries). BUT instead of physical harm, the harm that person is doing to your self-esteem, outlook on life and attitude, in general, is deep. The longer you wait to break it off is only perpetuating the damage they’ve done, each day your judgment becoming more and more clouded.

Simple enough, right? Well, it’s more complicated than it seems. The first step is acknowledging the presence of someone toxic in your life in the first place. There may seem to be nothing wrong with a friendship or relationship because the negativity surrounding it has gone on so long that it seems normal. So often, people are blinded by a relationship that has endured years and years but somewhere along the line has become increasingly one-sided *fake love by Drake starts playing*.

It’s hard to pinpoint that specific moment, and so it’s often ignored and the friendship continues with one person compensating for the unequal effort being put forth. Take a step back and look at it from a different perspective.

Personally, I have an extremely hard time finding anything wrong with friendship. The word in itself seems so warm and welcoming. So happy and reminiscent of good times and memories. I bet you could guess that I’m not so great at walking away from toxic people. I try so hard to see the good in everyone, especially my friends. Recently, I have gained a new perspective. This perspective allows me to realize that no matter what, sometimes you have to put yourself first because, ultimately, you have to make yourself happy in order to even try to contribute to a healthy friendship.

In kindergarten, it’s so easy to make friends. You never think that at some point in your life anything would get in the way of something as pure as that. But, as you grow older, people can change and that’s okay, change is a good thing. But if they change so much that they pose a threat to your happiness, that’s a good indication that you need to take a step back and let them do their own thing, just like you gotta do yours.