6. When I got my MA, a professor of mine came over to congratulate me after the ceremony. She said “You didn’t speak much in my classes, but when you did I always listened because I knew what you said would matter.” It was a really simple statement at the time, but I think about it often.
7. I made a girl laughs and she said I was delightful. It was a word, at the time, that I hadn’t heard in conversation in that context. Different but nice.
8. “You make my heart feel full.”
“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.
