"We choose to heal and we choose to move forward by being brave and vulnerable enough to heal." —Desmond Tutu.

If your cup of tea is sweet, drink it with grace, or even if it's bitter. Drink it with no complaints. That is how I try to live my life. My journey to be more exact. Trying to hold my life in a delicate teacup of grace.

One thing that I tell myself all the time is that if I sense a hard and difficult time coming my way: just go through it. Life is very bumpy and a bit awful at times, but if I give up on my life...the real question I should be asking myself is: "Where would my journey take me if I gave up on myself?"

Here, take your own advice for a chance. You never take it. Take all those hand written emotions, inspiration, heartfelt, and sometimes sad journal entries and make something out it for yourself.

Here, just for you and written for you, is an open letter for yourself to get everything out and accept everything for what it is so far in your life.

Your highest goals can not be met if you give up or stop short. Endure the pain, accept responsibility, take action for your life, and make it the best you can. Yes, the journey may try to confuse you and make you feel hopeless. Lost with no direction. Sometimes you won't feel like yourself. You start to cry, in the darkness of your room, in silence so no one can hear you. You try to pull it together and make it seem like everything is ok. Stop telling yourself that everything is just "ok." Instead, fight back with your inner demons and tell them that you don't listen to them anymore. Tell yourself that everything will be ok. It takes times to heal your battle wounds from anxiety and depression you have dealt with. Your heart tells you that every day when you look into the mirror. You stare at yourself and sometimes even think if you are worth it. One time, someone told you were worth everything and then a couple months later, he took those words and threw them out the door. Right when he kissed your forehead and drove off. He took all those lovely words away and you hated that because it made you feel useless and vulnerable. You couldn't accept on your own how lovely you already were even before he told you those words. You already knew. But, you still kept questioning yourself, because you felt alone and you were in deep pain. "How can you emotionally and physically move on from those wrong choices?" This is what your inner demons told you as you tried to pick up the pieces of your broken heart. But, after a couple months and time to yourself, you understood not to regret the decisions you've made so far. You finally understood those distant memories are just experiences and lessons to learn from. The real true lesson you learned was that not everyone you love will stay and not everyone you trust will be loyal. Some people only exist as examples of what to avoid.

You now just question to yourself, "Will I ever find love again?" Yes, but, what scares me is going through a rough patch again with someone. What if I fall so in love again and this next guy walks all over me again and takes my love for granted?

R.M. Drake says: "You say you will not love again, how your last relationship destroyed you and how love doesn't exist anymore. Well I say, you're a liar, for you will learn to love again and every time you do, it will hurt a little more than the last. I just hope you find it when you least expect it. The best kind of lovers are the ones who arrive without a proper invitation."

After reading this, I immediately opened up my journal and wrote something for myself. I call it "A piece of advice, take it and don't leave it." It is personal, but as a writer, you have to be open. For me, it helps me move on. Jotting down all the things that have hurt me and even inspired me. And I know I'm not the only one going through stuff, so I know I'm at least helping some people out here in this world. That's what means the most.

So, answering to R.M. Drake, but mostly to myself, I write: "He is absolutely right. I will find someone that will pop into my life unexpectedly and it will be amazing. I have to be patient with myself and I am doing a good job for the most part. I am slowly finding myself again. I dated someone I thought was the one. Look, it turned out not to be that way and that is ok because you accepted it. That was the most difficult time in your life so far and you won that battle of overcoming depression and heartbreak. Slowly, but you did it and you deserve a pat on the back for the things you endured this year. You gave love and that made you appreciate love more because of how you really felt. Because you now know what that true feeling is to be totally in love with someone. You gave it to the wrong person, but it is ok because you learned how to really truly love whole heartedly. So, don't ever regret anything that you had once. It just wasn't meant to be. You will get that undeniable, true, authentic, and infatuating love from someone truly for you. You won't ever have to question to yourself if he really loves you because he will show you in the smallest and even biggest ways. He will never keep you guessing. He will not confuse you like the last one did. He will give you everything that you truly deserve. Very soon."

The outcome of this year, I've learned to accept loss. But, the bright side of all this crazy mess is that every day I knew I would create something anew. And whatever I have, I enjoy every grasp of it as long as it lasts: people, places, things, memories, and love. These are the things we loose at some point in our lives. There's only now and tomorrow left. Yesterday is only a memory. Nothing will be the same, whether we like it or not. But, whatever you do, don't live in the past. Live and continue to make great things for yourself. Even if times are bitter sweet, like tea.