wednesdays-in-paris-at-cafes:

There is this quote that goes, “It took a long time for me to realize this: we get to choose what defines us.” We didn’t get to choose to be born or what people say about us behind our backs when we aren’t there to defend ourselves, we don’t choose to get hurt in the world or even who we get hurt by, we don’t pick and choose our family or our feelings, but we do get to control our reactions. We have the power to carve our own path. We have the power to not let ourselves be defined by the whispers behind our backs from people who barely know us. We have the power to go on in spite of the hurt. We have the power to leave behind people who hurt us. We have the power to choose to leave. We have the power to not let our emotions rage until they become all that there is and all that we see. There is so much more to life than that. There is so much more to you than that. I wish I could tell how I got from the girl I used to be, looking up into an lonely void where I was trapped all alone, to the girl I am now who can march down hallways again ready to take over the world just an hour after crying in pre-calculus because someone practically accused her of being a heartless calculating bitch the class before. I wish I could tell you how to get to a point where you are so confident in your abilities and in who you are and your powers that you know with piercing certainty and striking confidence and burning boldness that you will be remarkable and remembered, that you will change the world, that you will become everything you’ve ever wanted to be or you will die in the effort to climb the highest of mountains. I wish I could tell you how and I wish I could tell you why but I cannot. All I know is that it happens with time and it gets easier, or it doesn’t. All I know is that self confidence and self esteem is not as simple as repeating “I am beautiful” into the mirror a hundred times each morning or holding on to the compliments you get from your mom but that it starts there, it begins there. All I know is that it has happened and it can be done. All I know is that if I can be so determined to blaze a trail burning through the sky in spite of everything, you are strong enough to pick up the broken pieces in spite of everything too.