I didn’t know how to tell the good guys from the not so good guys…I whole heartedly believed that everyone was good deep down, you just had to love them enough to bring it out.
I wasn’t discerning with my trust, and I didn’t think character was important… I thought everyone intrinsically wanted to be good.
Because of this I let some difficult people into my inner circle.
These people didn’t like my friends and weren’t always careful with the truth.
Some prided themselves on being critical of me, others made promises they couldn’t stand behind, and some were completely unreliable.
I had surrounded myself with people who would rather tell me I was wrong than right.
It wasn’t possible to have an equal and honest discussion with them because they were too wrapped up in trying to prove their point to explore all sides.
They were constantly battling inside themselves and projecting it on to me.
And I was letting them.
I started to seriously doubt myself and my choices.
It put me into a whirlwind of trying to figure out how to do things right, how things were supposed to work, and how to do life.
They say leap and the net will appear.
I did eventually leap.
I didn’t remove every one of those people from my life, but I got enough distance to help see the picture more clearly.
In doing so, I have realized how crucially important it is to have people around us who affirm us what we believe.
It gave me the space to ask questions, explore deeper meanings and find my way without constantly being told I was wrong and having to fight my way through.
We think we are who other people see us as until we know better.
These difficult people taught me how to know better.