Something you wish you had known when you were younger?
Rejection does not equate to being unworthy.
Other people are struggling with security and self-acceptance just as much as you are, maybe more.
Maybe much more.
And the biggies…
It is not only unwise but wrong to treat people as means to your emotional or physical satisfaction. There’s nothing cute or funny or studly or empowered or bad ass about forgetting that each individual is an end unto themselves, no more or less deserving of human respect and compassion than you are and, though it can be a struggle to remember that when working out your own insecurities or being sacrificed on the altar of someone else’s, that doesn’t make it any less true.
The price you pay for not having integrity is much higher, in the long run, than you’ll ever pay for having it.