Let People Love You!
I’m going to say it again: let people love you. I don’t know if that sounds like a simple sentiment to all of you, but, for me, it was something that sounded simple but did NOT sound easy. I would get in my own way when it came to friendships, choosing to believe that I wasn’t worthy of being surrounded by amazing people. I’d try to only show the “good” parts of myself, so that people would like me better.
I Am Standing Again
This post is a segment of Not My Love Stories that powerfully displays that the loves that don’t work out also do work out, because they prove to us that we will remember how to stand on our own two feet again. And, if we can’t remember, we will teach ourselves how to walk again. Because, that is just what we do.
Table For One, Please!
I realized that this summer will be the first in quite some time that I fully intend on being single. No boyfriend. No one I’m “talking” to. No interest in the whole Tinder/dating apps scene. Basically, my internet besties, we’ve got no prospects. And it’s (largely) by design.
We’re All Like Other Girls
My friend Miranda and I were talking about this a few weeks ago, when I was first toying with the idea of this post, and she so beautifully said, “I look at all of you [my girl friends] and I see pieces I want to take from each of you.” How brilliant is that? Here we are, afraid to be like other girls, when, instead, we can focus on cultivating meaningful friendships with women that we admire. Instead of looking to other women through a fearful comparison of who we don’t want to be, what if we, conversely, looked to other women for inspiration of who we do want to be?
This Is Way Heavier Than the “Freshman Fifteen”
We all just really want to love and to be loved. Our world today can easily convince us that we’re lacking or that there’s not enough to go around, but, with love, there’s always more where that came from. No weight, GPA, dress size, or bank account balance guarantees happiness.
This Is a Shoutout to My Ex
I have learned to have immense gratitude for a relationship that did not last. If it had, I wouldn’t have been so invested in learning how to love myself. God knows why we wait to learn how to love ourselves when it feels like our survival depends on it, when it feels like if we don’t choose radical self love, our world might just cave in. But I’ve noticed, in myself and in others, we often wait until we are so sick and tired of feeling incomplete before we finally fill our own damn cup.
18 Things I’ve Learned From the First 18 Years of My life
BROUGHT TO YOU BY ARCHIVED JOURNAL ENTRIES, THE PEOPLE AND PLACES WHO HAVE SHAPED ME, AND MY DETERMINATION TO LIVE OUT AND TELL MY OWN “COMING OF AGE” STORY.
You’re Your Own Damn Everything.
You are your own damn everything. No one is more you than you. No one can understand you the way you do. I guarantee that the love you are seeking to give or receive from other’s is precisely the love you wish you would give yourself. Forget who you will disappoint. Take the risk. Get your cute a$$ in the driver’s seat. Ask yourself what you’re afraid of. Discern for yourself what sets your soul on fire.
For When You’re Feeling Anxious…
THE GOAL ISN’T TO NEVER FEEL STRESS, ANXIETY, OR DISCOMFORT. THE GOAL IS TO ADD NEW TOOLS TO OUR MENTAL TOOLBOX SO THAT WE CAN RIDE THE ROLLERCOASTER OF ALL EMOTIONS. THE GOAL IS NOT TO FEEL NUMB, BUT TO FEEL DEEPLY. THE GOAL ISN’T TO BE PERFECT; THE GOAL IS TO BE PRESENT.