I've struggled for many years with depression and self hatred. At the time in my life where I was supposed to learn pride and self respect, I felt crushed and unwanted, I felt like I was wrong and nothing I ever did would make me more than a mistake. I still feel those chains, forever weighing down my decisions and actions, and it is frightfully easy to slip back down under the water, but after so long I at least understand that there are people who love me, and despite my self doubt, I know I make their lives better. The wounds on your heart never fully go away, they just become scarred over with reason, or ignored through indulgence, still aching in times of bad weather. Don't be ashamed that they are part of you. If you don't believe in yourself, grow for the sake of others, and somewhere along the way you will see that you are so much more than the thing you felt cursed to be. Try your best to understand what you really are, inside and out, and accept those pieces as part of the whole. Even your shadow needs to be accepted and understood, lest it grows spiteful for it's existence being denied, and lashes out in a cry to be seen. You are more than you realize.