I Still Believe In You, So Please Don’t Give Up On Yourself Yet
By Gina Clingan
I don’t believe in much, but I have always believed in you. When your world weighs a little too heavy on your shoulders and your knees are begging to collapse, know that the ground is an illusion. If you fall, you’ll just bounce right back.
When it feels like you can no longer hold yourself or anything around you together, I need you to know that it’s okay to just let go. Letting go is not the equivalent of giving up. Letting go takes strength and allows you to see the world from a different angle as you free fall toward something better.
Sometimes it takes everything else falling apart to feel whole. Sometimes it takes everything completely shattering into tiny little pieces at your feet to realize how well put together you are, how strong you are in comparison to the fragility of your environment and your connections to the people in it.
Sometimes the environments and people who you thought were making you strong were actually holding you back. The ones whose presence you cherished were simply taking yours for granted. The environments and situations you were so proud to be a part of wanted nothing more than to break you.
Sometimes your experience and trauma that you carry around as a mechanism to either keep people out or let people in is simply weighing you down. You are stronger than the things that have happened to you. What you have survived does not define you — what has to survive you does.
When the world feels so dark and you can’t seem to find your way, do not give up. Sometimes you need to stop searching the hands and pockets of everyone you meet for a flashlight or a box of matches and realize that you are the light. Even if you feel the fire inside of you dimming, just know that your fading embers still burn brighter than any forest fire I’ve ever met.
I still believe in you, so please don’t give up on yourself yet.