How Journaling Became My Safe Space

P eople say the environment you grow up in shapes who you become. That said, if you grew up in a safe and loving place, you’ll likely be a positive, cheerful, and self-confident individual. However, if you grew up in an environment where expressing love felt like a burden, or if you were always left behind, you may develop into a negative, self-centered, or arrogant person. The environment and people that surround us define our identity. When I look back, I realize how much I hated who I was a few years ago. Life had turned me into someone no one recognized, not even my parents. It all started when my parents divorced on my 3rd birthday. At five years old, my dad married another woman who never wanted me. I felt like an intruder in my father’s house. I became lonely and abandoned. I realized at a very young age that there was no one to protect me. I remember my stepmother once saying, “ People you love will never love you back. ” She was right back then. But that statement is no lo...