A letter from March 12th, 2021

Dear Future Alexandrea, Nothing special but when I was writing my reaction paper for the video, “Mental Health Awareness” I wrote this out of context and this reflects what I feel right now. I just wanna remind you to always validate your feelings. I grew up in an environment where feelings are invalidated. It reaches to the point wherein crying felt like a sin. I grew up thinking that crying is weak and childish. I felt like I was wrong. Whenever people comfort me, I pushed them away because I wanna stop crying and them comforting me makes me cry even more. I also felt like I am being weak so I pushed people away. I grew up invalidating my feelings that leads to a point where my friends think that I am always strong and happy. But since this pandemic, amidst my family who are still invalidating my feelings, I myself learned to validate them. I realized that life is full of problems which we solve for us to be happy. It is okay to not be okay and we need to embrace our feelings and learn from our painful experience. Life is full of hardships so I hope you do remember to trust the process and sustain the pain of success. Yes you may be happy or sad now but I hope you validate them :> please learn how to accept other people’s comfort. I love youu!!! - 16 year-old alexandrea