You hear it all the time now a day, "love yourself first."

Throughout my life, I have been in serious relationships, had solid friendships with others and connected with people on diverse levels. These things are still said to be true about my life today. But all of these relationships have the same thing in common. I have felt loved in each and every one. The one thing I noticed in these bonds is that people will change and things will change. Whether you want them to or not. You cannot control the actions of others. You think she will be your best friend forever. You seriously convince yourself that she will be a bridesmaid in your wedding and maybe even the Godmother of your children. Maybe that cannot be the outcome anymore. You learn to love your friends, because you realize they would do just about anything for you. One day you will realize that life cannot be fair. Change is not fair, but it is constant. The only constant thing in life is change, change happens all around us. We do not necessarily understand why, but it is just the way it is. Change is inevitable and so are people. You also think that maybe one day you will marry this boy. You have your whole life set right in front of you, and then out of nowhere, life throws you a curveball. You try to convince yourself that this boy can give you the world but there is just something missing that you just cannot comprehend.

You cannot understand it, but that is life.

I can say that right now, I am at a point in my life where the only happiness that matters is mine. Sounds pretty ignorant if you ask me, but when was the last time you thought about yourself? When was the last time you did something for yourself because you enjoyed it. I have learned that you cannot go out of your way to make other people happy, until you have chosen happiness for yourself. I have gone through life worrying what other people think of me and how they look at me. Well guess what? Not anymore.

The day I started loving myself first was the greatest day of my life. In order to live a happy and healthy life, you need to make sure happiness is in the equation. This is the time in your life where you do not need to be everyone’s best friend, this a time in your life where you do not need to be in a serious relationship in order to be happy. This is a period in your life dedicated to exploration and discovery. Try new things and see how they make you feel. There is so much to be offered in this life, and you simply cannot depend on others to complete it. Do the things you love. Treat yourself and make it your own. Be silly and laugh at yourself! Wear an outfit you like because YOU like it. Dance around with no pants on to your favorite song. This is your life, so have a blast doing the things that you love!

One day down the road, you will be all settled down. Landed the career of your dreams, married the love of your life and had the most beautiful children. Imagine that life of yours and how lucky you could be to make that life a reality. It all starts with one single word, love. You will fall in love with your career, your husband and children, and most importantly you will have fallen in love with yourself. Loving yourself does not stop there. Like I said earlier, the only thing constant in life is change. Well there is one more thing in life that is constant. That is to continuously love yourself endlessly. It is true, self worth comes before anything else. You will never allow anyone else to love you until you learn to love yourself first. So let me leave you with this, the next time you want to do something you love, do it.

This is YOUR life, fall in love with yourself first.