To my best friend:

Some days are just hard. Some people are just mean. Sometimes life doesn't go as planned.

We find our "people". The people who are supposed to make the hard days a little easier, the mean people irrelevant, and the unexpected twists and turns less scary. Humans are social creatures who thrive off of caring people. So, it is no surprise that we all try our best to surround ourselves with people who care. If you are lucky, well then you find people that care just as much as you do.

Most of the time, though, it isn't so simple. People befriend people for status, and talk behind their backs. It sucks because somebody that meant so much to you, that means so much to you, thinks so little of you. They see your flaws and use them against you. They take your sins and post them for everyone to see and judge. They tell your secrets, hopes, and dreams and laugh like it was never important at all. They use your differences and imperfections and make you feel bad about who you are. So you change and try to be somebody they could be proud of. Somebody they would never hurt.

Well here is the truth. It isn't your fault. You can't change the way they see you. They will always see you as less than because you let them. You let them tell you who to be and then tell you that you aren't doing it right. They pretend to care every so often just to make you feel like they are trying to help you, and then they use that to get you to stay.

Let's just be done. We are living our lives cheating off of the person next to us filling out the same answers when we all have different tests. Nobody is stopping to read the questions to understand that assimilation is not what will make it better.

We have all of these issues because we believe we are less than too. They can't hurt you if you believe you deserve more. It is all in your head. They dug the hole, but it is on you to climb out. So climb out.

You can't make someone love you. You have to own the best parts of you, work an the things that you struggle with, and love the fact that you were put on this earth for a reason. They should love you for everything you are, but also everything you want to be, and everything you are not. If they can't love the you on the hard days, when people are mean, or when life throws a curve ball, then they don't deserve to love you on your best days. ANYTHING worth doing is hard. Loving you may not be easy, but it is so worth it. You have to know that.

Weak people leave you when you are down, and it may hurt. To be honest, though, they are the exact people you don't need.

Let them all in on the lie. You aren't perfect. Nobody is. Let them love the version of you that doesn't need anybody's approval, not the version who tries to earn love under certain conditions.