Somethings you just have to learn. That's life.

Photography: Rebecca Slaughter

A lesson is not a warning.

A lesson often does not jump out and scream “Hey pay attention stupid”.

That would be too easy.

We do have however intuition (sorry guys not you) Make sure to listen to your gut. A woman knows when something is “off” based on that gut instinct.

I can only speak for myself, but I have a life of these lessons where I didn’t let my inner queen speak up. I allowed some bad things to go down, knowing my gut told me to walk away.

Why am I grateful for it now? I didn’t like going through all that hurt. Whether its friends, men, business partners no matter the case. Shit hurts. I am however grateful. If you cannot stand up and say no for yourself, some other divine power will do it for you, and that's on experience. Too many experiences.

I value these hard lessons for many reasons though. I learned to listen to my gut. I learned to keep my values at the forefront always. I learned that when things are hard they always try to blame you first, and that’s okay. I learned that moving forward with gratitude is the only way to move forward.

If I can, so can you.