I believe in butterflies.

"He'll always be the same", said my mother. I always thought the people in my life would be there forever. That they'd always be the same person I met that one day. But as I developed into the person I am today, I realized that even I am not the same. I believe in change. I believe in growth. It's something I taught myself.
When I was young, I went to catholic school. I was outgoing, happy, kind, and hardworking. As I got to high school, everything changed. My personality. My tone. My effort. Almost like how a butterfly starts to break out of their cocoon. Everything. It was almost like I lost someone. But that someone was me. My peers began to notice a change in me, and I began to lose friends that I had had for years before. My family even began to distance themselves at one point and told me they were disappointed in who I was becoming and missed their kind, sweet little girl.

As time went on, a lot more changed than just my attitude and tone. My grades started to progressively drop along with my effort. I began to skip classes. As more time went on, I started skipping days. This put me in a terrible position and when I would go to school, and go to my classes, the teachers would always make comments and it began to make me extremely uncomfortable.

A few months later I started having extremely bad mental health issues. I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I wasn’t' eating for days straight. I began to lose an extreme amount of weight and it became highly noticeable to everyone around me, but I still had low self-esteem and thought I should just continue not eating to make my body look better. I was in and out of hospitals and treatments for months that traumatized me. And even tried to end my own life a few times.

After treatment I realized that this was not the person I wanted to be. I wanted to change. And I wanted to change for the better. At that point it was almost like I started growing wings. I started going to the gym, therapy, and started to surround myself with good people. People that would lift me up instead of bringing me down. People that cared about me and wanted to see me succeed. I moved in with my dad and my entire attitude and demeanor changed. I started a new school; this brought me lots of anxiety. From not knowing what I was going to be walking into, not knowing my way around, not knowing anyone. At first, it was hard. I was on the volleyball team, but still every day I was eating lunch, alone, in a bathroom stall. The girls and boys from the volleyball community welcomed me and started to invite me to sit with them at lunch. I started getting straight A's. I was happy, and I was healthy.

So yes, I do believe in butterflies. In change, and in growth.