Holly Riordan

When you’re insecure, you spend a lot of time living in the past. You’re still stuck on how ‘ugly’ you were in high school or how the first person you loved rejected you or how your ex cheated on you. You have a hard time looking in the mirror and accepting you’re not the same person you used to be. You’ve changed. You’ve grown. You’ve become even more beautiful.

You aren’t going to get any better until you reorganize your priorities, rearrange your schedule, and reword the way you talk to yourself.

You might feel like you’re never going to stop making mistakes. You might feel like everyone you love is going to leave you eventually. You might feel like you have nothing to offer this world. But those are fears, they aren’t facts.

I care about how gently you are going to treat me in my lightest and darkest moments. I care about whether you are going to make me a priority. I care about whether you are going to care.

If talking to him only makes you happy for the five minutes he’s actually answering you — and then makes you miserable for five days when he’s ignoring you again — then he’s probably not worth your effort.

I wish we didn’t have to end our relationship in a screaming match. I wish we could have ended by reminding each other how much we love each other — and how we will always love each other. I wish we could have stayed friends.

You’re running around, trying to do everything for everyone except yourself. 

I can’t blame them for being annoyed with me. It takes me ages to answer texts. I rarely follow through on plans. I only leave the house once in a blue moon.

You stop thinking of yourself as a catch and start thinking of yourself as a burden.

You saw their worst side, and as much as you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, as much as you want to believe they have changed, there will always be a piece of you wondering whether they are going to hurt you again. 

We can’t help how sensitive we are. We feel too much. We hurt too much.

It’s easy to forget the life you’re living right now doesn’t have to be the life you live a year from now.

I should have stopped liking you when the first red flag appeared. When you started acting sketchy. When you started going missing in action. When you started toying with my emotions, leading me on, making promises you never intended to keep.

When you think too much, you make assumptions. You assume your person is annoyed with you. You assume your person is getting bored of you. You assume you know exactly what your person is thinking without having a conversation with them about it.

Your person should hold your hand. They should play with your hair. They should massage your shoulders. They should kiss your forehead. They should sprinkle little dashes of affection throughout the day — without expecting it to lead to anything sexual. 

You worry you might hurt the person you love. You hope you live up to their expectations, hope you can make them happy, hope you never let your fears overpower your feelings for them.

They have their hearts set on branching outwards, on bettering themselves, on becoming the ultimate version of themselves.

You can’t get used to your person swooping in when something is wrong and playing the hero. You can’t rely on them to handle all of your problems for you. You can’t forget you are supposed to be a team.