Dear people,

You hurt me. In some way, shape, or form, you temporarily made my life miserable. There's no need to name names because you definitely know who you are, but this isn't a letter of finger pointing, or people shaming. This is a letter of thanks.

As cheesy as it may sound, each and everyone of you made me stronger. And I thought each and everyone of you deserve a special thank you.

To the guy who broke my heart: thank you, you taught me how to guard my heart and opened my eyes to see not everything is a fairy tale.

To the best friend that ditched me: thank you, you forced me to open up, branch out, and meet new people and make new friends.

To the girls who always excluded me: thank you, you showed me how others feel when it comes to being ostracized, and you've helped me to become a person that's included everyone.

To the coach that told me I'd never be good enough because of my size: thank you, you made me push myself to prove you wrong and become the best player I could be.

To my old captain that called me a try-hard: thank you, because of you I just tried even harder and again became a better player.

To the guy that played me: thank you, because of you I've come to realize that some guys do only have one thing in mind and to keep watch for it.

To the teacher that told me I'd never succeed: thank you, because of you I've performed to the best of my abilities and believe that I have a decent chance at succeeding (while you were fired this year).

To anyone who has ever hurt me: thank you, you've helped me grow up and prepare for the real world.

I'm obviously not ready to face the world on my own, as I'm also not done being hurt by people. But I feel every time I'm hurt, my mind automatically looks for a silver lining. Hey, maybe I didn't get my happily ever after, but that just means I'm one less frog away from my prince. I'm one less fake friend away from finding my true friends. One less failure away from my success.

So to anyone that hurt me: thank you.

Sincerely,

The girl you made stronger.