When you play video games, you always start with three lives. Cats were born with nine of them. But humans only get one.

Lately, I have realized a universal problem: people believe that in this one life, they should put other people before themselves.

Do not get me wrong. Donating your money to charity before going on a shopping spree is an amazing deed. Donating your time to helping the less fortunate is way more beneficial than sitting at home watching the newest Netflix series.

But I am saying that you should never avoid something because you are afraid of hurting someone else.

I have been living for nearly nineteen years and it wasn't until this past week that I realized how big of an issue this concept really is. Everyone I love dearly has admitted to me things that they never once wanted to confront me about because they were afraid of how I would feel. That concept rattled my bones because I have always put myself first.

I never cared if that boy was going to be heartbroken because I didn't want to be with him. I never cared because how I felt mattered and I wasn't going to let myself feel sorry for not loving them the same way they loved me.

I have always made sure I was comfortable wherever I was. If I wasn't, I knew I had to leave before the negative thoughts left my brain and escaped onto my tongue, eventually making their way down to my hands, where who knows what could have come next.

The words that come out of my mouth have always been backed up with the statistics of one hundred percent honesty and one hundred percent originality. I have always been true to myself and said how I felt because no one else could take that away from me.

So when my best friend told me she didn't want to say something because she was scared how it would make me feel, it made me take a step back and give her a piece of advice I wish I would have shared earlier in our friendship.

To anyone who constantly puts other peoples feeling before themselves: listen.

Do not spend your early twenties in college dreading waking up and going to class. Do not waste your time doing things just to make other people happy. Stop living for your mother, your father, your best friend, your lover and live for yourself for once.

I want you to go out and make decisions because it makes you happy. I need you to realize that doing something that will make you happy is so much more beneficial than doing something you hate for the sake of keeping someone else happy.

Please don't go around degrading people because you do not like them and use that as an excuse. "It makes you happy so fuck what they feel." NO. That is not the point I'm trying to make.

I am saying if you hate your 9-5 job you can find another even if your coworkers will all hate you for leaving them. You are allowed to tell that boy you don't want to go on a date with him because you know you would rather have a sleepover with your best friend.

You only have this one life to live, so please put how you feel before anything else.

Your feelings are important. So stop telling yourself they aren't.