To the girl that always puts others first, but still seems to be the one whose intentions are the most misunderstood. If you are like me, you often find yourself saying “that was not my intentions” or “I never intended to make you feel…” Fill in the blank. Sometimes you wonder ‘Why does this always happen to me?’ You may feel that you always have everybody else’s best interest in mind and can even care less about yourself at times, but the misunderstandings still occur. Over and over and over again. I think it is safe to say that you feel like your name might as well be “Miss Misunderstood.”

Well Miss Misunderstood, here is the honest truth. When you put the interests of others above your own all the time, people get used to it. They get used to you always saying the right things, doing the right things, and being miss perfection all the time. Then one day, something goes wrong and you feel like your entire world is falling apart. Your intentions get twisted and distorted based on what others want to believe about you. You may always try to effectively get your point across, but there is some people that refuse to listen and try to make you feel bad for their misunderstanding. As unfair and frustrating as it is, it is the truth. The more you try to fix why you are always misunderstood, eventually you realize that you are not the one with the problem. People CHOOSE to only listen to what they want to hear or believe.

Do not let others bring you down just because they chose to misread you or because they chose to not understand what you had to say. Life is too short to worry about the people that choose to look down on you and misinterpret you for reasons you cannot even control. To all the Miss Misunderstoods out there, keep your head up and know that YOU define who you are, nobody else. If somebody makes the conscious decision to not listen to what you have to say, consider it their loss. Continue to be best version of yourself that you can be and leave the people who always choose to misunderstand you in the dust.

“Don’t waste your time trying to explain yourself to people that are committed to misunderstanding you...”-Shannon L. Alder