You’re Not The Only Awkward One: 50 Singles Reveal The Most Embarrassing Way They Chased A Crush

By Thought Catalog Updated January 12, 2024

42. In elementary, I went to school with a couple dudes that were very gymnastically inclined. They would do a double backflip off the swings instead of just one. They would do flips off the monkey bars, standing back flips, wall flips, you name it.

The girls loved them, they would sit and be an audience for these guys every lunch almost.

I got jealous. I practiced on my trampoline for a few days, tried some hand springs (which I got pretty good at, forwards not backwards)

Then the next time they were showing off, I joined them. Boom guy #1 comes running through; hand spring, cartwheel, back flip, back flip. Guy #2 comes bolting behind him; cartwheel into ariel, into backflip.

Here I come, cartwheel, into back hand spring…. oh wait, I dont know how to do one backwards, land on my neck, wind myself, start crying.

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.