#2019 is done

[nymph1e]

Do y'all ever see a meme and think to yourself "this meme has been around for centuries" but then at the "year in meme" summary at the end of the year, you discover that that meme is brand new? No? Just me?

[tchrgleek]

I have been reading over everyone’s New Year’s/New Decades posts and I don’t quite have the words to say what I’m feeling here. Most of the posts I have read are melancholic, or maybe wistful at best, but some are downright depressed or even despondent. I just feel like nothing I say is going to make much of a difference, but here goes anyway:

YOU ARE AWESOME THE WAY YOU ARE.

Nobody has the right to make you feel bad about yourself. You were created to be exactly who you are right now. If your brain is telling you otherwise, tell your brain to fuck right off.

I am so proud of you. You are alive right now, despite all the shitty stuff the last decade threw your way. You have, each and every one of you, brought joy into my life and made my life better just by being you.

Now, I know mental illness doesn’t work like that for real. There is no way to just tell your brain to fuck off and feel better by snapping yourself out of it. TRUST ME. I’ve been there. But there is a hope and a future for you because you are still here. You haven’t quit yet, and you are not going to. You are a strong and capable human being who has survived. You are going to thrive. I just know it. I know it because I have lived it. I had friends who wouldn’t let me give up when I wanted to, and people who supported me when I couldn’t do it myself. Some of you count as those people, even if it was as simple as a greeting card or a chocolate bar. 

2020 is here. It’s a new year, a new decade, and a new outlook. Choose optimism. Choose joy when happiness isn’t available. Let your friends and people who love you hold you up when you can’t do it yourself. You are loved. You are worth loving. and you are awesome.