Rock bottom is a scary place. I know that as much as you do and unfortunately, rock bottom is not a place you can expect to only visit once in your lifetime. I know that each and every time you find yourself in that dark place feels just as bad as the previous, and that there are struggles you have gone through that you hardly like to think or speak of.

Struggling is the most horrific part of being human and I've watched my loved ones- friends and family, go through it just as they have watched me go through it. It gets ugly, I know. We push people away and hurt others when we’re broken to the core with our struggles and we feel the gut-wrenching regret that follows soon after.

These hard times are a part of life and as much as we hate it, struggle is inevitable.

It may seem as if this hard time you are going through or whatever pain it is that you are feeling is forever; but it isn’t. The thing about hitting rock bottom is that you don’t stay there forever and no pain is forever. These hard times will come to an end and there’s no specific expiration date for it, but it will end.

You're not okay right now and that’s okay- admit it to yourself. You’re not okay and everything feels as if it’s crashing down all around you, but it isn’t. Take a moment to breathe, and think of all the great things you wish to do once you pick yourself up from rock bottom and how all those things will not be achieved if you choose to become crippled by your hardships.

It may seem as if there is no way out of this dark place, but storms do not last and they will pass and eventually, you will come to realize how life is a gift- a gift we should not deny or throw away as if it’s not as precious as it is.

Things are a bit messy for you right now, but the good news is the sun will rise in the morning, you will wake from your sleep, breathing and alive, tomorrow will come with a thousand different chances to change what you are feeling right now and I do not promise you that you won’t feel this way tomorrow, but I do promise you that tomorrow is a new day; and it’s yours for the taking.

I can’t stress enough that none of what you are feeling is permanent because one day, you will be smiling and laughing again with such genuine, raw happiness, you will look back at these hard times and remember how you thought you’d never get to feel that way again; how you thought any chance of ever being happy again was nonexistent and how you thought you were going to feel that empty kind of sadness for the rest of your life.

These hard times…they’re hard, but they’re crucial to our lives. They shape who we are and I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t so. Things will get better; you will get better and I am rooting for you all the while; now and forever.