My mother once told me, “When someone is worth your time, you’ll know it”. By this point in my life, I had already wasted days of my time on countless boys who didn’t give me a millisecond. And, of course, each time I thought they were worth my time. So:

Dear Boys Who Wasted My Time,

Hey. Do you even remember me? Probably not. Well, let me reintroduce myself.

My name is Lauryn, and you wasted my fucking time. 

Time: you know, that one thing I can’t get back? The thing everyone cherishes with their loved ones? The thing people use to make a difference in lives? The thing that allows all of us to heal properly from the things that otherwise would eternally damage us?

Yeah, that.

I could have changed the world with the time I wasted on you.

I could have used my breath to share with others my stories instead of sharing things about me you didn’t care to listen to.

I could have used my ears to listen to loved ones telling me to leave the situation instead of listening to you tell me bullshit lies about you “caring about me”.

I could have used my hands to build bridges for others to escape from their hardships instead of using them for the one thing you wanted from me all along.

I could have used my eyes to develop an appreciation for the world around me instead of waking up with burned out corneas from staying up all night talking to you.

I could have used my intuition to see that you were a shitty person instead of watching you blatantly ignore me, thinking “well, maybe he’s just busy”. Yeah, busy with another girl, that’s for sure.

You damn well wasted my time, but you don’t get to waste my worth. 

My worth is not determined by you telling me how beautiful I am with my clothes off. 

My worth is not determined by the droplets from my eyes that fell because you couldn’t appreciate me. 

And my worth damn well is not determined by whether or not you think I’m pretty, or funny, or sexy, or any other bullshit compliment you used on me to get me into your bed.

You can go through life wasting everyone’s time to build your ego, but wait until that ego is destroyed by the one girl you end up having to settle for because you ruined it for yourself.

I hope you have a good life, and remember: you can purchase as many watches and wall clocks as you want, but they can’t bring back the time you stole from us being a selfish little prick.

With love and doing better than you ever will,

Me.