33 Women Confess What They Worry About Before Hooking Up With A Man For The First Time

By Thought Catalog, October 19th 2018

https://thoughtcatalog.com/?p=925993

19. My taint is deformed and not pleasant to look at.

“I have Crohn’s disease from my mouth to my rectum. It’s not contagious but most people don’t know that so I usually have to warn partners that between my booty cheeks to my taint is deformed and not pleasant to look at. (Not to mention I’m really self-conscious about it.) Also had a guy try surprise anal and not only did it piss me off (I had been very clear that was a no go), it caused a tear that because of the meds for my Crohn’s took more than a month to heal.”

—assissues

Thought Catalog

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.