50 Gifts You Should Not Think About Getting Anyone This Christmas

By Thought Catalog Updated January 12, 2024

8. I got a half of a box of chocolates for my birthday one year. Yep – I opened it and half of them had been eaten already. It wasn’t from a child – it was from adult family members. The reasoning was that they knew I would share them when I opened them, but I was away on a business trip on my actual birthday and they couldn’t wait to eat some.

9. My parents gave me obviously re-gifted dollar store schlock last year. That’s why this year I’m done putting thought into family gifts, I always go overboard anyway. I’d get them gift cards but they constantly lose those too!!

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.