Ayn Rand was wrong

Sorry, this may be rather long, but I need to type it.

A lot of people have left me and hurt me, and I grew to be so cynical about life and people. I thought people always hurt eachother, love was always pain. After dilligently following Ayn Rand for a year, I have realized she was wrong.
Though many people have left me, people aren't perfect. The point is some of them came back, and there are people that it is safe to trust completely. I lost so much by never completely trusting someone, but in the past year I've learned what trust means. And I do trust a few people completely. I believe in who they are, and the consistency of the amazing people they've become. I know without a doubt that they will never abandon me.
Love isn't about pain. Sure, sometimes it hurts and may not seem worth it, but in the end it is ALWAYS worth it to love, no matter how hurt you get. That knowledge is precisely what enables you to recover from that pain.
So many people hide behind apathy and cynicism, and are safe in their fortresses. Those that truly care are vulnerable, and often destroyed by the world we live in. But do they believe the world is all bad? No. They believe in human goodness. And my gosh, no matter how much it destroys you, caring is worth it and a million times better than living as a concrete, cynical lie.
Love... Ayn Rand was wrong. Selfishness in the sense of believing in yourself is important, but being "able" to live totally independent of other humans is just another form of a lie. We are not autonomous. It is not weak or wrong to depend on love, to depend on others, t olove others with the same passion that you love yourself. How horrible it would be to live constantly downplaying the importance of others.
I wrote an essay for English: there is no such thing as altruism. But I was wrong there too. People aren't innately selfish. Altruism exists, a complete abandonment of self for someone else. I would do it in an instant, die for one of my friends, any one of them. Selfishness would have nothing to do with it. Love and trust and caring would.
I was wrong, wrong about all of these things. For all the filth in the world, I believe most in its goodness and beauty, and for humanity and each person too. People are innately good. External forces bury them in evil. I don't believe in innate killers, unless something is psychologically amiss.
So in the end, given a choice to be cynical or to care, to trust or to be safe, to love or to try to live autonomously, I choose caring, love, and trust.