The other day I stumbled upon one of my favorite quotes and couldn’t help but smile when I read it. I want to sincerely thank the person that said, “If someone treats you like crap, just remember that there is something wrong with them, not you. Normal people don’t go around destroying other human beings.” It's truly amazing how a few words jumbled together can teach you how to fly free from anything or anyone weighing you down.

It seems as if I constantly come across people who do not respect themselves enough or value their self worth: they let other people define who they are and what they deserve. These kinds of people are relentlessly seeking approval from others, letting toxic relationships destroy them, convince themselves there is truth in falsifications, let the wrong people stand in front of doors that need to be opened, and ultimately, these people hold themselves back from bigger and better things ahead of them. I notice these kinds of people because I was once just like them.

I’m all about creating lasting relationships and friendships and putting forth all your efforts to keep these things going, but there is a fine line between bending for someone and breaking your back. Whether it’s your ex or that one friend you just need to “breakup” with, you cannot let people mistake your kindness for weakness. It is so important to not lose yourself by loving someone so much that you forget to love yourself in return. Every person we come across in our lifetime is not always supposed to stick with us until the end and more times than not, there’s a reason for it. The longer we hold onto these people, the longer it takes us to get to the places we are meant to get to. Not every relationship you have can be fixed, and not every relationship you have is meant to be fixed. You have to learn to take the pieces of you that are broken and put these pieces back together to stand stronger than you were before.

Sometimes the people we love the most tend to do and say things to us that hurt us the most. The things people say about you, to you, or behind your back do not define you. You define you and no one knows your intentions better than you do. When we learn to accept that something is toxic to us and that we deserve better, we finally find the courage in us to walk away. When we then learn to walk away from situations, we begin to see all the doors that are open for us. By letting go, we finally invest less time in the wrong people and have more time to focus on all the good people in our lives. It’s so important in life to build relationships that are actually meaningful and worthwhile instead of these lethal relationships that have more cons than pros.

As our dear friend Taylor Swift once said, sometimes people "all are ever going to be is mean." We can either accept these mean people for who they are to us and learn not to let it affect our daily, or leave them and move on. Sometimes two people are not good for one another and ultimately are not meant to be in each other’s lives, no matter how much you maybe once loved.

The worst part I find about coming across these people that cannot find their self worth is that not even I can help them find it. I hope that these people realize sooner rather than later, how much the world has in store for them because I promise the world has a lot more to offer than just one hurtful person. There are 7 billion people in this world and the majority of them are nothing but good.

There's a simple truth to the statement "you meet people for a reason." You can waste your time hating someone, but eventually you will learn to take a step back and thank this person for allowing you to grow into a strong and self-reliant human being. Sometimes, let-downs are only meant to guide you to yourself, and to guide you to the people and places that are only meant to bring you up. I hope you learn that even broken wings can fly, too.