I don't say this to her enough.
The version of me who woke up on the hardest mornings and still showed up. The one who cried in private and smiled in public because she didn't know what else to do. The one who made messy decisions, loved the wrong things, and still.. somehow.. kept going.
She didn't always get it right. She stayed too long in places that hurt her. She gave too much to people who didn't give back. She silenced herself when she should have spoken and spoke when she should have walked away.
But she survived every single thing that tried to break her.
And I'm here because of her.
I think sometimes in the rush to become better, we forget to honor the versions of us that carried us through the worst of it. We're so focused on who we're becoming that we forget to thank who we were.
So this is for her. For me. For every version that existed between then and now.
Thank you for not giving up.. even when you wanted to. Thank you for choosing yourself.. even when it was terrifying. Thank you for trusting that something better was coming.. even when you couldn't see it.
You were doing so much more than you knew.
And I carry you with me. Gently. Gratefully. Always.