This letter is for you.

This is for the you that is still hurting from the pain of yesterday, the pain of years before. This is for the you that is smelling the dead remains of who you used to be, following the sounds of a better tomorrow. This is for the you that needs validation, that has found success and peace, that needs to feel not alone in a world that keeps quiet when it needs to scream. This is what I want to remind those parts of you:

When loving yourself feels like a busy street, anxious and unsure and overwhelmed, walk yourself over to a park nearby and find your soul in the flowers. You were never not enough. You were never defined by their words or that voice in your head that fights you. You are not the busy street; go find where you are.

When he saunters around you like a hungry lion, remember his smirk does not make you a mouse. You are strong you are strong you are strong, even when you don't see the muscles, even when you don't have them.

When you feel like you're being kicked around, being used as a broom to clean up the glass that she broke, remember that you are not the glass nor the broom and that you can and one day will stand like the human being that you are.

When you think of how sick you used to be, the places on your body that served as reminders, remember your body is only a vessel, and wow, how beautiful you are. How much more you are than a couple of body parts and bones and veins.

When you think about your parents' split or the glares or the screaming or the confusion or the emotional bruises, and you remember how scared you were and how disgusted you are, validate yourself every single second. You have a right to feel what you feel. You are safe.

When you're crying over the changes you see in your body or your relationships or your heart, don't be afraid to lean into the pain or learn how to look towards the future. Your best days are not far away, and you've been here before.

When you see the people who should've protected you, when you're reminded that protection feels like a faraway dream in a land of things that don't exist, like a dark version of unicorns, think of the people who care about you, even when you feel like they don't.

I know the splinters on the path you must walk. I've tripped over the rocks and felt the blood trickle out of my feet. I've desperately grabbed hold of what I could find nearby to save me from falling. I would shelter your feet if I could -- but we only have one pair of shoes here in this unfair world. Because of that, I'll walk next to you. I'll guide you around the splinters and the rocks. I'll carry you when you fall. And I know you'll do the same.