Lauren Jarvis-Gibson

I hope you find the courage to wave goodbye to your past. I hope you find the courage inside of your heart to give yourself something that is beautiful, instead of something that will be gone tomorrow morning.

Don’t shrink your brightness for a man. Don’t downsize your light. Don’t turn off your happiness for anyone. Be your own kind of beautiful. And be the kind of woman that you are proud of.

For your future self, stop sitting around throwing yourself a pity party. Stop blaming the world when things get really, really hard. And most importantly, start supporting yourself. Live your life according to you. And don’t let anyone or any circumstance get in the way.

You’re allowed to believe in yourself — despite the past that haunts you with ghosts you wish you could forget. Despite the people who tell you won’t amount to anything. Despite the individuals who spit words at you, begging you to trip over yourself. And despite all the whispers in your head that tell you that maybe all of those people are right.

The only thing stopping you, is you. The only person pushing you to not do it, is you. The only person stopping you from accomplishing your goals, is you. So stop disappointing yourself. And do it.

I am done wearing myself down. I am done giving people my all, when I get nothing in return. I am done giving away my whole heart, when all I get back, is my soul torn to shreds.

Let 2017 be the year you surprise yourself. Let it be the year you put one step forward instead of taking three steps back. Let it be the year you sprint instead of stumble. And let it be the year you go for your goals instead of turning your head away from them. Let it be the year you get up off of your ass, and start putting your life back together.

I had high hopes for you, you know. Hopes that we could all do better and be better people. Hopes that better things would come to the people I love, and that greater things would come to people who truly needed it.

Here is to all that you haven’t discovered yet. Here’s to the beginnings that haven’t begun. Here’s to the endings that will break you and here’s to the beginnings that will build you right back up again.

Dear 2017, Please grant us with the strength we need when we are deep into despair. And please grant us with the hope we need when we are close to giving up.

You’re allowed to set yourself free from the life you have grown tired of. You’re allowed to wave goodbye to those people who never supported you in the first place. And you’re allowed to do something for yourself, to escape the life that has tripped you in its tight grasp. You’re allowed to leave that life behind you. And you’re allowed to not look back if you don’t want to.

Someday, maybe a year from now or five years down the road, we will meet again. You will stutter and shuffle your feet across the gravel, and I will smile and ask you how you have been. And on that day, you will want to tell me that you’re not ok, and that you’re sorry, and that you want me back. But when that someday happens, I will be gone before you can say a word.