Life is hard. You know that already. If you didn't know that, you probably wouldn't be here reading this. You probably would be somewhere showered, with all of your laundry washed doing something wildly productive.

Like laundry.

But you're not. You're here, reading this pep talk because life. Freaking. Sucks. But knowing that almost makes things easier doesn't it? You've done this before. You've been here before. This space is familiar, it unfortunately feels like home. It's comfortable to slip into, it envelopes you in the warmest most suffocating way you can imagine. It's hard to leave, because it's what you know. It's hard to walk away when it constantly beckons to you. It's hard to say no to your bed and bingeing of Netflix. It's hard to find joy when you feel determined to find the sadness.

But that's why we're going to take baby steps. Baby steps to joy. Baby steps to confidence. Baby steps to smiling. Baby steps to peace. You are an amazing specimen of a human being. You are capable of so much strength. The strength to survive the bad days, the determination to soak in the good ones. Find what it takes to bring that out of you. Maybe it's prayer, maybe it's meditation, maybe it's an order of a Diet Coke with a large side of fries.

And sometimes you have to fake it. Sometimes you have to fake the smile, fake the joy in the hope that one day you'll feel it for real. Sometimes it's important to remember that faking it until you make it is okay too. Sometimes you have to stop and take a breath and maybe try again tomorrow. But it sometimes helps to remember that no one has what you do. The graceful way you shake your hips to Partition? No one else could come close. Not even the queen herself. And if you need to, if you want to, go ahead and wrap yourself up in that blanket and turn on some SVU, Be soft with yourself. Be soft with your feelings. Be soft with your space. And you can, because you can do it all. You can have it all. Because it's all yours for the taking.

Your talent, your intelligence, your beauty, your tits, are greater than whatever makes you blue at night. They will outshine your problems every time. They will overcome the sadness because they are better. You are better. You are a babe, and do you know what babes do? They fight back. So you're going to fight. You're going to get back in the ring and earn yourself a KO. Fight for your joy. Whatever it is, fight for it. You are too amazing and incredible to lose this battle. Do what it is necessary to find your joy because it is yours for the taking. And never forget: Babes. Fight. Back.

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