Once you get to know yourself better, you don’t need people that much. You’re taught it’s important that those around you should bring a difference in your life, and that a few people love you for who you are and many, the false mask and image they see in you, exactly how you did with those you had beside. And then, you find out that “I love you” and “I need you” never meant the same, they have different meanings, and that the distance between them it’s exactly the same between strong and weak, because strong you are when you love, and weak when you need the others to make you feel yourself.

You’ll be strong when you will learn to look beyond flaws, because only when you will accept yourself, you will open your heart for people, people perfect in their imperfection. Only when you’ll love yourself, you’ll be able to love those around, because in that moment you’ll not love them for the nonexistent parts you don’t have but find in them, nor for the empty spaces in you that you think they may complete.

You’re weak when you can’t find yourself and need the presence of other people in your life. You’re weak when your happiness, your power and the love for life depend on others, when the coordinates after you live your life are in the hands of others, and not because they took them, but because you left them there, not because they’re stronger than you, but because you don’t have confidence in your own power. And then, depending on someone becomes a disease, and “I love you” translates into “I need you”.

You’ll be strong when you’ll learn to love yourself with good and bad, when you’ll shine, but also when you’ll be buried under fears, in days when you’ll feel proud of yourself, but also when you’ll meet your own darkness. And the more you find yourself, the more people you lose. You’ll lose those who loved you for the things that made their ego bigger, those who felt strong through your weaknesses, the selfish people who gave little love but expected a lot more. But those who care will remain, those who see the real you, behind the social mask you put on, those who will be joyful to see you grow and saw how beautiful you are, even when you didn’t know.

Finding yourself means losing people, people who shouldn’t walk down your path, but it always shows you those who deserve to be beside you.