43. A few weeks ago I was talking to my brother, and I referenced a YouTube video that I hadn’t watched in months. It was that Brian Jordan Alvarez video with the line “Sometimes… things that are expensive… are worse.”
Later that day when I opened the YouTube app on my phone, that scene was in the top of my recommended videos. It wasn’t even the whole original video – it was just a clip of that particular scene, with the line I referenced as the title. Freaky stuff.
“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.
