#heartclaps

This weekend is the first time that I ever really believed that it truly is okay not to be okay. I have never been so emotionally drained and sleep deprived—and I am so happy about both of those things because I experienced the best few days of my life!

This weekend also taught me that I no longer have the energy for meaningless friendships, forced interactions, and negative conversations. The people that you surround yourself with are a direct reflection of yourself and you deserve to be around people who feed you energy and encourage your passions. To be completely honest, I was so nervous to spend the weekend with a bunch of “strangers” and even more so was surprised that I left there loving every single one of them. I can honestly say that these girls will be my forever friends. We know each other on a more intimate level than most people ever do and I trust them—huge coming from a girl riddled with trust issues.  

I learned that it is okay to show your feelings and to never ever apologize for them—this goes for guys & girls. That all any of us really wants is to be accepted for all of our faults and that crying doesn’t make you weak—in fact it shows your strength. That you own everything that has ever happened to you and it is okay to share your stories. My entire life I have tried to hold my feelings in to the point that I often make myself sick. I have refrained from sharing things that were happening in my life on so many occasions because I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I didn’t cry. I still don’t cry much, but I’m really working on that.

I have no way to put my feelings into words about how much the I Am That Girl Retreat meant to me, but I do know that it changed my world—all of our worlds. Thank you to every single person who helped make this possible. Thank you to those who donated & shared my campaign. Thank you to the IATG team. Thank you to Jack, Audrey, & Sequoia for capturing our stories. Thank you to the IATG Board for mentoring us. Thank you to all of the incredible sponsors including GoPro, erincondren.com, & Dormify.

It is because of you that I commit to being authentic, because only then will I truly love myself.

“I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity & her flaming self respect. And it’s these things I’d believe in even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn’t all she should be.” – F. Scoot Fitzgerald