Friendship.

Depending on who you're spending your time with, this word can mean many different things. Friendships can be one of the purest things in the world and your safe place if you're spending time with the right people. However, if not, they can hurt you and make you question yourself.

Friendships do take work, but they should never make you sad or cause you to wonder about your worth. The people you choose to keep the closest to you should support you, lift you up, and make you feel good.

I'm not saying that it's not a friend's job to warn you if they think you're making a mistake or choosing a path that's going to hurt you, but it's all about the way it's being presented. A friendship that makes you feel small or leads you to believe that you have to shrink yourself is not a friendship.

Your friends should want you to be yourself, to love the things you love, and to pursue your dreams. If they don't, I promise you, they're not the people for you. For a time in my life, I forgot the true meaning of friendship, and instead chose to allow myself to fall into a situation where the friendships I was cultivating were not allowing me to be happy or grow.

I was in a situation where I didn't feel that my interests were accepted, and I felt that if I truly expressed who I was, I would be mocked. It took a lot of strength to leave those types of friendships behind, but once I did, I was able to understand what my friendships had been lacking.

Now, I am able to see that friendship is a give-and-take, and it means being there for someone on their good days, their bad days, and everything in between. Your friends should want you to succeed, they should want what's best for you, and they should hope for you to reach your goals.

Friendship is not a competition, and it's not an excuse to belittle someone under the guise of looking out for them.

Over the past few months, I've formed great new friendships and have been able to rediscover what it's like to be surrounded by people who are truly on your side. The bottom line is, the people you choose as your friends should want you to win. If not, find people who will because they're out there. I guarantee it.