Fighting back.

Friday night, I broke down. I fought it for a long time, but the tears I had been swallowing for 2 months could no longer be repressed. My head boss had told me earlier that morning that if I didn't like the way she talked to me, that I should "suck it up" and that I had failed as a copywriter. I received no apology from her for the angst she had caused me, yet in a cruel twist of fate, spent the rest of the day trying to apologize to her.

That was the last straw, the last crashing tidal wave against a rock now split in two. After being cut down by my landlord, my roommate, and now my boss...after the deterioration of my new car and a $1100 bill...after continually weathering the sorrows of two men in love against my own lost, heavy soul...I was finished. I felt nothing but tears and emptiness.

But in the end, love still saved me. Just as I gave up, my sister called. I told her everything. She was shocked, but not at my situation. At me.

"What do you MEAN you don't know who you are, anymore?" she bellowed. "I know who you are. You're Leslie. You're my sister. And no sister of mine is going to sissy out like this!"

She continued on like that for a while...until I started talking, until I stopped crying, until I got angry, and until I rose to the challenge.

And now I'm on the other side of the line...the line of assholes, arrogant bitches, and people who will always tear me down. At one time I was facing them and letting them cut me down until I was nothing. Slowly but surely, I am walking to the other side, where I am angry, where I no longer care, where I walk proudly and leave them behind me.

I am loving, I am compassionate, and I am determined to be better.
I am justified in who I am.
And you will not stop me.
I will never treat people like you have treated me.
And you will not stop me.
I will become a greatly respected writer and pioneer in advertising.
Those who work for me will not respect me out of fear,
but out of admiration and appreciation.
And you will not stop me.
No matter what my position or how much I make,
I will always respect and engage even the smallest person.
And you will not stop me.
I will persevere and become exactly who I desire to be.
And you will never, ever stop me.