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"I know it&amp;#039;s a little late for a New Year&amp;#039;s resolution, seeing as it is already March, but I finally thought of the perfect one. Since there isn&amp;#039;t enough room here to go into why I am the way I am, I&amp;#039;m just going to go ahead and throw it out there\u2014I am deathly afraid of confrontation. It&amp;#039;s actually one of the things I like least about myself. I don&amp;#039;t mean that I wish I was a big bully pushing people around all the time, I just wish I was better at sticking up for myself and saying what I truly feel. After years of being a &amp;quot;push-over&amp;quot;, so to speak, I am finding that the only person I am really hurting is myself. Living in New York, for example, friends are always asking to come stay with me, and I always say &amp;quot;Sure, sounds great!&amp;quot; even if I&amp;#039;m uber-exhausted and desperately need some alone time. I hate conflict so much that more often than not, I&amp;#039;ll put my wants and needs to the side in order to be agreeable. But CG!s, I&amp;#039;m here to tell you that today, there is a faint smell of change in the air. One of my roommates woke up late today (again!) and instead of letting him take a shower before me like I&amp;#039;ve done in the past, I said &amp;quot;Tough cookies! It&amp;#039;s not my fault you can&amp;#039;t wake up on time!&amp;quot;\u2014okay, so I didn&amp;#039;t use those exact words, but you get the point. It felt great and best of all, I didn&amp;#039;t have to rush around to get to work because of someone else&amp;#039;s carelessness. So I&amp;#039;ve decided this is going to be the new me! I know it won&amp;#039;t happen overnight, but I think if I take enough baby steps, I&amp;#039;ll get there eventually. Tell me CG!s, how are you at sticking up for yourself? Are there times when you let people take advantage of you or are you tough enough to not get pushed around?! xo, Julia CG! Beauty Intern "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/a10840/dont-mess-with-the-new-me/>