Letting people in has always been hard for me. However, what most people don’t know is that it stems from a traumatic event that happened to me in the past. When I was in high school, I had a friendship with a girl I considered to be my best friend. I trusted her blindly, even though I shouldn’t have.

As I said, I trusted this girl completely. I shared with her all my thoughts and emotions, everything that went through my mind. I won’t bore you with details and just cut to the chase. What had happened was I shared with this friend my thoughts on one of the other students in our class. Little did I know it would backfire.

My friend, who I trusted, went ahead and told that person exactly what I thought of them, she shared and spread my secret. She betrayed my trust and wrecked out friendship in a matter of seconds. Everything I thought I could trust and rely on suddenly appeared to be shaky and unstable.

As a result, I can’t bring myself to trust people and open up my heart to them. I am very guarded, and I believe it held me back from developing good and meaningful friendships. There is the saying: “Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” For years, I lived by this saying. However, in recent years, that changed a little.

Through my work, I managed to find people I connect with very well. I have noticed that recently, I am opening myself more and more to them, and I am thankful for it. See, friendships are about back and forth. In order to receive love and friendship, in order to obtain real friendship, you have to be vulnerable.

So, put your heart on the line, open yourself up to others, and you’ll see it will be worth it all.