Understanding Heartbreak and Self-Respect

I think leaving somebody that you really wanted to be with changes

you more than

you even realize.

Yeah.

Um, and the crazy part is, you don't even notice it happening.

You just start changing a little more every day. You become quieter.

Yeah.

Less willing to tolerate bullshit, because walking away from someone

you genuinely wanted is a different kind of pain.

You're not leaving because you stopped loving them.

You're leaving because somewhere inside you-

Hmm

... you finally said, "I have to respect myself enough to stop

choosing this." And honestly, that shit hurts.

Yeah.

Because you wanted it to work. You picked to the future.

You kept hoping things would eventually get better.

So walking away feels wrong at first.

You start asking yourself, "What was all of that for?"

Mm.

But you don't realize what that decision is doing to you internally.

Yeah.

Because after surviving that, people can't shake you.

Mm.

Someone talks shit about you, okay. Someone disrespects you, whatever.

Someone tries to make you feel small.

You've survived worse if you've already survived walking away

from somebody you

thought you couldn't live without.

And that's when you realize self-respect doesn't always feel powerful when you

first choose it. Sometimes it feels like heartbreak.

Yeah.

But eventually, that heartbreak turns you into someone who

no longer abandons

themselves just to keep somebody else