A story

Once upon a time there was a girl named Ria. She lived each day laughing and smiling and acting the way she thought she was supposed to act. She totally "reformed" from her old ways in an attempt to "fit in" and show people that she could be like they wanted her to be. In doing so, she felt like a piece of herself was missing, but she shrugged it off and kept trying. She lived her life for someone else, doing everything she could think of to please him. Never once did she put herself in front of him, or anyone else for that matter. That was her first big mistake.
As time passed by, Ria began to feel as though she was missing something. She looked around and saw this person buying things for himself or that person going out with her friends or that other person traveling wherever he wanted. It was then that she realized that she was just putting on a front of happiness. She missed the way she used to be, the way that made her feel whole. She realized that living her life for someone (or everyone) wasn't going to make her truly happy, unless he (or they) showed her a little love back. So she waited for it, still working her butt off to make him happy and give him all she could. That was her second big mistake...Waiting.
With the passing of more time, came many more realizations. To get to these realizations, she had to make mistakes and learn from them. In making these mistakes, she learned more than she had ever thought possible, more than she had ever wanted to learn. She found out who her true friends were. She found out that the "love of her life", the one who had promised to be with her forever and promised he would never give up on her and that there was nothing they couldn't overcome, lied to her. She found out that everything she had ever done for him, or anyone else she thought loved her, didn't amount to anything when she erred i.e. when she showed that she was human.
This brings us to the present. All the tears are cried out. The pain has finally subsided. She is slowly piecing the puzzle of her life back together. Thinking back to her big mistakes, she wonders, "if I could rewind time, would I re-do it all and change so I didn't make the mistakes"? The answer is no. You cannot change who you are. Everything that a person goes through helps mold and shape them into the person they are today. Times suck and things change. It's a horrible feeling to know that you had been fooled by people who were supposedly your best friends, people who were almost like your sisters or brothers, or even worse, by a person whom you felt was your soul mate.
But everything happens for a reason. She now has a new group of friends. She isn't dependent on anyone but herself. She goes out and has a good time, and enjoys the time she spends with others. Her smile is genuine, and the sparkle in her eyes is real. Though she tries to do things to make herself happy, she still finds pleasure and contentment in doing things for others. In taking a deeper breath than before, and getting a little stronger every day, she is finally getting comfortable with life, but more importantly...with herself.