As you age, you realize that your family isn’t nearly as nice to you (or each other, for that matter) as you thought they were. This is a hard pill to swallow, mainly because it feels like the conception of them in your childhood years has been a lie, and you’re finally coming to the hard realization in real time. It brings back feelings of inadequacy, discomfort, and, well, grief.

The holiday season is rough for many for this very reason. How do we reconcile our differences with family and finally come together happily? In many cases, there’s no reconciliation to be had. What’s done is done, and the constant bickering and miscellaneous bombshell familial issues don’t stop. Do we choose happiness, even if that means isolating ourselves from the people we’re supposed to feel loved by and cared for by? Honestly, yes.

The woman in this next story hasn’t been to her family’s Thanksgiving celebration in nearly three years, and she’s making no exception this time around. Her family treats her and her partner poorly, despite their introversion, and they refuse to continue being personal punching bags. Now, coming up on the third Thanksgiving celebration without her, her family decides to continue the narrative that she’s being selfish. Scroll to read.