Dear Da'von, I'm Sorry.

Dear Da’von,

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry for the times I allowed people to take advantage of your kindness. I’m sorry for the time, energy, love, and patience you gave to people who didn’t value or appreciate them. I’m sorry for every moment you questioned yourself because someone else didn’t know how to treat your heart with the care it deserved.

I’m sorry for the people who thought they could play with your emotions, take your kindness for granted, or come in and out of your life whenever it was convenient for them. I’m sorry for the times you ignored the red flags because you wanted to believe the best in someone. You saw potential in people who sometimes never saw the value in you. You gave people chances they didn’t always deserve because that is the kind of heart you have.

But I want you to know something: your kindness was never the problem.

Your willingness to love, forgive, understand, support, and show up for people is not something you should be ashamed of. Having an open heart is a beautiful thing. The lesson isn’t that you need to become colder or stop caring. The lesson is that you have to learn who deserves access to that heart.

You have endured some incredibly difficult things. You have experienced disappointment, loss, heartbreak, confusion, rejection, and moments when you didn’t know how you were going to keep moving forward. There have been days when you felt defeated, days when you questioned yourself, and days when simply getting through the day was an accomplishment.

And yet, you kept going.

Every single day, you make the decision to move forward. Even when you don’t have all the answers. Even when you’re tired. Even when you’re hurting. Even when the past tries to convince you that you should stay there. You continue to choose yourself, your future, your growth, and the life you are building.

I’m proud of you for that.

I’m proud of the person you are today, but I’m even more proud of the person you are continuing to become. You are constantly evolving, learning, unlearning, growing, and becoming more intentional about the life you want. You are learning that boundaries aren’t walls. You are learning that saying no doesn’t make you selfish. You are learning that you can love people without abandoning yourself in the process.

I’m proud of your heart.

I’m proud that despite everything you’ve experienced, you haven’t allowed the world to completely harden you. You still love deeply. You still laugh. You still dream. You still get excited about life. You still want genuine connections, meaningful friendships, love, adventure, and experiences that make you feel alive.

Please don’t lose that part of yourself.

But promise yourself that from this point forward, you will be more intentional about who gets access to you. Not everyone deserves your time. Not everyone deserves your energy. Not everyone deserves to know every part of you. And not everyone who wants you has earned the right to have you.

Stop measuring your worth by how someone else chooses to treat you.

Someone failing to recognize your value does not make you less valuable. Someone choosing not to appreciate you does not mean you weren’t worth appreciating. Someone walking away does not mean you were difficult to love. Sometimes people simply don’t have the capacity to give what you deserve, and that is not a reflection of your worth.

You deserve relationships where you don’t have to constantly question where you stand. You deserve people who communicate with you, respect you, choose you, and show you through their actions that you matter. You deserve love that feels safe, friendships that feel mutual, and connections where you don’t have to beg for the bare minimum.

And most importantly, you deserve to give yourself the same grace, patience, and love that you so freely give to everyone else.

So, Da’von, forgive yourself.

Forgive yourself for the people you stayed too long for. Forgive yourself for the chances you gave. Forgive yourself for the moments you didn’t know better. Forgive yourself for the times you settled, ignored your intuition, or put someone else’s feelings before your own.

You were doing the best you could with what you knew at the time.

You know more now.

And because you know more, you can choose differently.

Keep your heart open, but protect it. Keep loving, but don’t lose yourself trying to prove your love. Keep believing in people, but believe in yourself enough to walk away when someone repeatedly shows you that they cannot give you what you need.

You have come too far to keep abandoning yourself for people who would never do the same for you.

I hope you continue to grow into someone who is even more confident, peaceful, intentional, and secure in who you are. I hope you continue to chase the things that make you happy. I hope you travel, laugh until your stomach hurts, create memories, build meaningful relationships, pursue your dreams, and experience the kind of love and joy you’ve always deserved.

And when life gets hard again, and it will, remember this:

You have survived every difficult day you have faced so far.

You are still here.

You are still growing.

You are still becoming.

You are still worthy.

You are still loved.

And you are still deserving of everything good that life has to offer.

I’m proud of you, Da’von.

I’m proud of the person you are, the person you’ve been, and the person you are becoming.

Most importantly, I hope you never forget that you are worth choosing, not just by other people, but by yourself.

With love, grace, and a whole lot of forgiveness,

-Da’von