There comes a time when you realize that you have to take charge of your own life. As convenient as it may be to have everyone else make your decisions for you, that does you no good in the long run. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to take yourself seriously. There is no other way around it. When you take that next step, some things are bound to happen. This is in no way a complete list, and some (or none) of these things might actually happen to you. However, here is a list of some things that might take place after you claim your independence.

1. When you decide to make that change, there may be people in your life who will try to convince you to revert back to the way things were before. There may even be people who get upset or angry because they do not have any power over you anymore. You simply have to understand that you did nothing wrong. If people have a problem with you living your own life, that is a reflection on them and not on you. Just keep being yourself — and don't apologize for it.

2. You might feel overwhelmed by life and all of the choices you now have to make. Life can be incredibly hard, and making the right choices can seem as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. You just have to trust yourself and your instincts and know that you were brought up with a strong set of values and morals, whatever they might be. You are strong enough to handle this. You just have to believe that.

3. You are going to make the wrong choices sometimes, and it is going to feel absolutely awful. That is completely unavoidable and is something you need to experience. If you have never made the wrong choice, you will never know what the right one looks like. The more experience you have with making choices, even if you sometimes choose wrong, the better your odds of making a better choice in the future. Apologize to whoever you need to apologize to, learn from your mistake, and then move on.

If someone stops wanting to hang around you, or if they lose respect for you because you claimed your independence, you need to drop them like a hot potato. That is a classic example of a toxic relationship, be it romantic, familial, or friendly. Simply put, you don’t need to put up with that, you deserve better, and those people needs to learn that they are not in control of anyone else but themselves. If that truth is shocking to them, they need a reality check.