My biggest problem is forgiving people when they are not actually sorry.

My ex-favorite person treated me like gum on the bottom of his shoe; I was a pesky annoyance. But I worshipped him. It was dumb.

He made plans with me one time, and I was over the moon.

He didn't show up. You didn't see that coming, right?! haha

I waited until it was pretty late before I called him. I tried to act casual when I asked him what he was up to. He said he was "lounging."

I flipped out and said lots of horrible things.

He explained that he didn't show up because he wanted to teach me a lesson: "Don't depend on others for your happiness."

I had not asked to be taught a lesson. Damn, he was so narcissistic!

Then I became spineless and absurd. I apologized.

Lord, have mercy.

What was I sorry for?!
For getting my hopes up?
For assuming he had integrity and would keep his word by showing up when he said he was going to?!

I handed him all the power on a silver platter. It set the tone for the rest of our relationship, and things progressively went downhill.

The moral of my story is: Only forgive someone when they are actually sorry.

If they don't think that they did anything wrong, they will keep disrespecting you.

We always hesitate to enforce our boundaries because we are afraid of losing someone. But that's actually the worst thing to do! Nobody wants a pushover. You would hate someone like that, right?

You teach people how to treat you.
Demand respect.

Draw a line in the sand and say, "Don't cross this."
And if they do, leave.
Don't draw another line in the sand for them to cross again.