Everyone Thinks My Best Friend Went Missing. I Know What Really Happened.

By Thought Catalog,

“Look,” he began, and from that very first word I knew it was going to hurt. “We… I don’t think we should hang out so much anymore, okay?”

I sat there. My palms were sweating onto the crinkly material of my sleeping bag but I didn’t move, didn’t want to betray how I was feeling.

Kevin waited for me to say something. When it became apparent we were in a standoff, he sighed again.

“You’re just… you’re too close to me. People notice. Guys in class notice. They think – they say we’re—“

“I’m not gay,” I said, but it was just the first thing out of my mouth. I didn’t know yet, hadn’t had that special moment where I knew if I liked girls or guys, I just knew I liked Kevin, and at that very moment Kevin was tearing my heart out of my chest.

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Trace the scars life has left you. It will remind you that at one point, you fought for something. You believed.

Trace the scars life has left you. It will remind you that at one point, you fought for something. You believed.

“You are the only person who gets to decide if you are happy or not—do not put your happiness into the hands of other people. Do not make it contingent on their acceptance of you or their feelings for you. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if someone dislikes you or if someone doesn’t want to be with you. All that matters is that you are happy with the person you are becoming. All that matters is that you like yourself, that you are proud of what you are putting out into the world. You are in charge of your joy, of your worth. You get to be your own validation. Please don’t ever forget that.” — Bianca Sparacino

Excerpted from The Strength In Our Scars by Bianca Sparacino.

Trace the scars life has left you. It will remind you that at one point, you fought for something. You believed.

Trace the scars life has left you. It will remind you that at one point, you fought for something. You believed.

“You are the only person who gets to decide if you are happy or not—do not put your happiness into the hands of other people. Do not make it contingent on their acceptance of you or their feelings for you. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if someone dislikes you or if someone doesn’t want to be with you. All that matters is that you are happy with the person you are becoming. All that matters is that you like yourself, that you are proud of what you are putting out into the world. You are in charge of your joy, of your worth. You get to be your own validation. Please don’t ever forget that.” — Bianca Sparacino

Excerpted from The Strength In Our Scars by Bianca Sparacino.

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