I've noticed a trend among my female friends, family members and coworkers, something that occurs constantly on a daily basis. Whenever we bump into someone on the bus, or are accidentally made the wrong drink at Starbucks, we apologize. And we don't need to. We apologize way too much for things that don't require apologizing.

I'm absolutely guilty of this. I brush past people on the train and apologize. I apologize when I state my opinion and it's different from someone else's. I apologize when I breathe or sneeze too loud.

Why do we do this?

As women, we are constantly told that we take up too much space. We are told we have to be sweet, nice and kind 100 percent of the time. Being assertive is not allowed. We aren't allowed to take up space. We aren't allowed to have strong opinions.

Women don't need to apologize for existing. We don't need to apologize for taking up space. We don't need to apologize for having opinions. When we say "I'm sorry" for sharing an opinion or taking up space, we invalidate our worth as human beings.

We are worth so much more, and we don't need to apologize for existing.

From this moment forward, I am going to challenge myself. I am going to keep track of when I say "I'm sorry" and why I feel the need to apologize, and then I am going to cut any unnecessary apologies from my life.

I don't need to apologize for being a human being. And to all the women who are reading this--you don't need to apologize either.