Dear Me,

Thank you for staying strong when your mom forced you to make her drinks starting at the age of 8 and you finally realized it wasn’t normal.

Thank you for staying strong in second grade when that mean girl called you fat and ugly and you were forced to notice your imperfections.

Thank you for staying strong when you had to leave all your friends and move to a new town in 4th grade just to get called a loser the first week at your new school.

Thank you for staying strong when you were labelled the “shy kid” in elementary school because the 72mg of Ritalin you took every day made you a zombie.

Thank you for staying strong in middle school when you would come home and go straight to your room crying while emptying your back pack of pencil shavings and disinfectant wipes.

Thank you for staying strong when the mean girls said you weren’t good enough to preform at the 8th grade talent show with them.

Thank you for staying strong when you were never asked to the school dances by the boys in high school.

Thank you for staying strong when your friends only invited you to parties just because you were the first to get your drivers license.

Thank you for staying strong when your mom would get drunk every night and verbally abuse you.

Bitch. Slut. And my favourite 10 cent whore.

Thank you for staying strong when you almost swerved off the side of the road from crying too much after your coach told you that you would be the only varsity women’s’ rower to NOT row in California with your team because of favouritism and the coach’s desire for tall and skinny rowers.

Thank you for staying strong when you told people you weren’t eating because you were a lightweight rower even though you became bulimic because the only thing you could control was your weight and what you ate.

Thank you for staying strong when you never told anyone about your problem and instead of helping you, your mom yells at you to eat and get better and tells you that you’re wrong for thinking that it was okay.

Thank you for staying strong when you dad looked at you and told you “I’m happy you’re eating again.”

Thank you for staying strong when your sister left for college and you were stuck with your mom who had an unacknowledged alcohol problem.

Thank you for staying strong when you left for college with the fear that your parents wouldn’t miss you.

Thank you for staying strong when you finally felt happy being free and independent at college.

Thank you for staying strong when that didn’t last.

Thank you for staying strong when you got blacked out drunk and told all your friends you wanted to kill yourself.

Thank you for staying strong when the two strangers who found you crying on the side of the road were the only people to make sure you were alright the next morning.

Thank you for staying strong and fighting through your depression.

Thank you for staying strong when you finally decided you needed to leave and start something new.

Thank you for staying strong when you had to leave your friends and start over in a new town.

Thank you for staying strong when you lost your virginity while blacked out to the stranger you supposedly met at a party and had unprotected sex with.

Thank you for staying strong when you had to wash the blood off your body in the dorm showers.

Thank you for staying strong when you had to throw out your friend’s bloody sheets and buy all new bedding for her.

Thank you for staying strong when you told your friends jokingly that “this would only happen to you” even though you feel awful about it.

Thank you for staying strong when you didn’t tell your mom because you knew she would call you a slut.

Thank you for staying strong when your mom called you a slut after you had to tell her you had a UTI.

Thank you for staying strong when you had to go to Planned Parenthood to buy Plan B with the friends you had made just the week before.

Thank you for staying strong after all of this and moving on from it.

Thank you for staying strong when your bulimia comes back because you feel awful about yourself.

Thank you for staying strong when that asshole you dated only texted you at night during the weekend to hang out but also claimed he wants a relationship with you.

Thank you for staying strong when he got mad at you because you didn’t want to have sex on the third date and told you “all women are the same… you just love to control everything.”

Thank you for staying strong when he ended it because he’s just “too selfish to be in a relationship with someone.”

Thank you for staying strong and independent and not needing a boyfriend to make you feel good about yourself.

Thank you for staying strong when you committed to pursuing a career that helps people and society even though you were so close to losing faith in humanity.

Thank you for staying strong and always trying to better yourself.

Thank you for staying strong.