Recently, my life has taken a few turns: of these, some have been amazing, some painful, some expected, some completely unforeseen. I have learned lessons that I have needed to learn and learned some lessons that I hoped I would never have to learn. I have lost people and relationships dear to my heart and gained newly treasured friendships. I have found acceptance and hope that I have been looking for and also new confusion that I wasn't quite ready for.

You see, what I'm getting at with this is that this past year has brought with it a whirlwind of experiences. Some of these experiences have led to great loss and pain while some of them have led to marvelous triumphs over deep seated demons that have been with me for years.

These turns and experiences that life has brought me recently have taught me a few lessons that I would like to share with y'all. So, I will do my best to share with y'all this piece of my heart.

1. Sometimes, as life changes and we grow, people that we love drift away from us.

This one has been one of the hardest lessons to learn. It is very hard for me to understand why friendships and relationships with others can fall apart so suddenly. No matter what the cause behind it is, I struggle to accept that sometimes in life we lose people that we thought would never leave. Friends that we thought would be there for life drift away from us.

Sometimes, we must come to accept that people change, and no matter how much love you have for someone, you can't make them stay in your life. You can only hope that they find happiness in their future, even if they no longer want you to be a part of that future.

I wish I could tell you how to heal from this pain, but I haven't quite figured that part out for myself yet.

2. Do not ever let anyone make you feel bad for giving your love to people who do not return it.

If I have learned anything in my twenty years on this earth, it is that love is never a bad thing. Love can be painful and hard, but it is never bad.

I have always been known as the girl who loves too hard and too much. My heart is huge, and my empathy for others sometimes causes me pain. I have much experience with giving my love to people who didn't want it or return it, but I will never say that they didn't deserve my love. That would go against everything that I believe.

I was made to love people; it's my first instinct, and for that I will no longer apologize. I know that my love for others has brought me pain in the past and it will more than likely bring me pain in the future, but I will not allow those fears to stop me from giving this world all the love I have.

3. Do not allow your love for others to diminish your love for yourself.

This is a big one.

Being a person who loves hard, I have recently found myself in a position of allowing myself to give love away to people even at the cost of my own happiness. You see, for months now I have found myself caught in a battle between my head and my heart.

My heart wanting to fight for the feelings that had made a home there, and my head knowing that it wasn't worth the fight. I can honestly say that this is one of the hardest battles because you can never win. There will always be a part of you that loses, and that is very hard to come to terms with.

This is a lesson that I am still in the process of learning, mostly because it is painful to learn. However, I am thankful for the lesson because I know I am better for learning it.

4. God never leaves us completely alone; in fact, without us even realizing it, He gives us everything that we need.

This lesson has been one that I have learned because of the friends that I have been so blessed with.

This group of people have been my saving grace.

They love me when I don't feel quite so lovable.

They remind me that no matter how crazy life gets, I'm not in this alone.

For that, I will always be thankful.

5. It is TOTALLY okay to not be okay all of the time.

When it comes down to it, a lot of the time life is hard.

It's hard and it's draining, and it can make us feel like we can't do anything right. We all have those days where it truly feels like we are being kicked while we are down.

On these days, the hard days and even the not so hard days, it is more than okay to not be okay.

It took me way too long to realize this. I spent so much time trying to bottle up feelings for the purpose of "keeping it together", and that just wasn't healthy. Always remember that no one has the right to tell you how to feel. You do not have to have your feelings validated for them to be real. Understand that it is okay to take a step back in order to take care of yourself.

6. Silver linings can come from unexpected places.

All of my life, I have struggled with my self image. I was told mean and nasty things by my peers at school for years from a very young age, and this did a lot of damage to the way I saw myself and still see myself. Going into my junior year of college, I was feeling really defeated, and I wanted a change in my life.

Recently, I was introduced to CrossFit by a family friend who is very near and dear to my heart. To say that I never expected this journey would be an understatement. I never even believed that I could fit in at a place like CrossFit. Now, I thank God for its existence.

This journey, though still in the early stages, has brought me so much joy and accomplishment. I have had the opportunity to look so many of my demons in the face and squash them. I have been given the opportunity to learn to truly love myself for the first time in my life. There are no words to describe how thankful I am for that.

This year has changed me as a person in more ways than one.

I have learned so much more than just what I can put into this article: so many small life lessons on a day-to-day basis.

I have learned to value both my triumphs and my losses for what they are both worth: for they both hold valuable experiences.

I have learned that even though life is hard and it brings pain... the beauty that it also brings is well worth the struggle.

So go out and dare to truly experience your life because tomorrow is not promised, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to reach the end of my life and regret not doing everything I could have done when I had the chance.