Five years ago, one of my best friends and I decided to go to South Lake Tahoe on a whim and it was by far one of our most epic friendship memories.  It was my first time in Tahoe during the summer and the weather was perfect.  Young and adventurous, we did the 500 feet parasail and oddly enough, you don't feel like you're at 500 feet...  until you realize that you are at 500 feet (lol)!  If anything, getting reeled back in felt scarier because you can feel the cable wobble as it's working to pull you back. 

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Compassion and Love:  Five years ago, I also thought I was on the brink of a mental and emotional breakdown due to a betrayed friendship and a toxic romantic relationship.  In hindsight, I see that I held on to both  because of the history I had with the two when they both equally had their own toxic tendencies.  But I guess I now realize how history should not be a reason to maintain a relationship when they don't serve you positively and help you stay healthy in all aspects.  It should be how I feel in the present and what it's doing for me in the now.  I realize that I gave up so much of myself, providing all of my compassion and love to others, but never really being compassionate and loving towards myself.  After learning to deprogram from how I thought I should be forgiving even if it meant my emotions, I learned to protect my peace within these last couple of years.  I also learned that the title "family" seems to be a cop out to forgive unchanging toxic tendencies that I'm learning to distance myself from as well.  It's hard because it seems like in my culture that I was raised in, you're suppposed to do anything and everything for family when it seems like that lecture is only given to me.  What about the wrong doer?  Why don't they have to listen to being compassionate and loving no matter what?  

I don't want to live my life constantly complaining about the same people.  Rather than complaining, I'd rather analyze how a relationship is serving its purpose in my life and decide whether it's worth maintaining or cutting ties.  I believe in deciding if a slight is small enough to look pass, or a constant that needs reevaluating because what a relationship makes me feel is just as important as anyone else's.