To the girl who skipped me in the lunch line in Kindergarten, thank you. To that boy in eighth grade who told me I was not pretty enough, thank you. To the friend who I thought I could trust, thank you.

It may seem strange that I am writing a thank you letter to you, but you are deserving of appreciation. I would not be the person I am today without your negativity pushing me forwards to learn how to be the bigger person. Thank you for testing my patience to the point where I built up the confidence and decided enough is enough.

Trust me, we have all experienced being hurt by others ever since we even knew how to name that feeling. We could not label emptiness and not being good enough. It was too overbearing of a concept to fathom. I know you are all too familiar with this feeling since you all projected it on me.

It hurts so much more when you get hurt by people who you invested time in, like I did with all of you. Some of you were my closest friends, people I would interact with and talk to everyday. For some, you betrayed my trust. For others, you were not supportive of the positive things I was doing in life due to jealousy. It's completely fine. I'm me. You're you. It puzzles me as to why you wanted to hurt me. Just understand that your actions forced me to remove you from my life.

At some point, I did love all of you. I really did. I thought you were all going to be in my life forever. Sometimes I still wonder if I should send you all a text to see how you're doing, but then I stop myself and ask, "Do I really want to get hurt again?" Sometimes I do want to take the risk, but I know that it won't be good for me or the progressions I am making in life, so I don't contact you.

I was always in a constant battle of trying to make others happy and slowly lost myself. I wanted to make you all happy and this was impossible. As corny as it sounds, sometimes you do have to lose yourself to rediscover who you really are. From your hatred and negativity, I've become motivated to live to my full potential and be confident in the way I approach life. I am no longer afraid to stay away from those who don't care about my well-being or those who don't support me in my life's endeavors. I've experienced some growth and I hope you have too. There's no hate between us (at least on my end), as I am thanking you for shaping me as a person.

There's a quote I once heard, "When you choose to forgive those who have hurt you, you take away all of their power." So take this letter as a declaration of the loss of your power. You have no more power over me.

Sincerely,

The girl you hurt