The Choice to Live
At the time, my father was unemployed and my mother was the teen-mom stereotype. They were already burdened with a daughter before me...
Stories of hope and resilience, Share yours.
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- Jun 29, 2019
- 7 min
Every Scar Is a Battle I’ve Won
My new parents were loving, good-hearted people who tried to adopt children with special needs who otherwise might not get the care they...
- Jun 26, 2019
- 6 min
Empowered
I stared blankly at the interviewer, unable to comprehend the words she had uttered. Tears formed in the corners of my eyes...
- Jun 4, 2019
- 6 min
Diseased, but Not Defeated
I couldn’t wait for the day I...became a teacher, and had my own classroom. The world was at my fingertips…until…it wasn't...
- May 14, 2019
- 6 min
So Little I Have
When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with a birth defect called phocomelia. Both my legs are defective, twisted and lifeless...
- May 7, 2019
- 7 min
Every Peak and Valley
That was, until my life took a nightmarish turn after I was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of seven...
- May 3, 2019
- 7 min
When I Say I’m Fine
Growing up I watched my mom and sister struggle from their symptoms and try medication after medication to achieve some relief...
- May 1, 2019
- 8 min
I Will Walk with You
With tears in her eyes, she softly said, “I am glad you are here, Papito, and even if you’ll be in a wheelchair, I still want you to...
- Apr 22, 2019
- 6 min
I’m Still Breathing
Stand, sit, eat, drink, poop, pee, and breathe—thoughtless functions for a healthy body. But there I lay, a limp, lifeless, 27-year-old...
- Apr 17, 2019
- 6 min
Cheers to Chubby Ladies
It’s an easy sentiment to offer someone else, but it took a long time for me to view my own figure in this way. Loving my body has been...
- Apr 2, 2019
- 7 min
On Mission to Heal
All the while, I felt a sense of urgency to get a medical degree. I knew that I could try and make a difference in the lives of those...
- Mar 26, 2019
- 7 min
Surrounded by Fear
My health anxiety, the irrational fear of being or becoming ill, leads me to manifest symptoms of sicknesses I’m afraid of catching...
- Mar 20, 2019
- 6 min
#TheSweetChallenge
Our small, close-knit family was overflowing with love and happiness. I was a chubby little girl who loved packing her stomach with...
- Mar 12, 2019
- 6 min
Love the Skin You’re In
But the most prominent memories from my childhood involve my hands gravitating constantly towards my face and my skin...
- Mar 7, 2019
- 7 min
Survival Is Only the Beginning
There are some days that stay in our memory longer than others. They are often the turning points in our journey: when something...
- Feb 6, 2019
- 7 min
A Walk to Cherish
In fact, I seemed perfectly normal until about age four. That’s when I began walking on my toes with a sort of limp, as if I were...
- Jan 25, 2019
- 7 min
To the Other Side
This was the day I was born, miraculously, to a drug-addicted mother who couldn’t take care of me. I was born with fetal alcohol syndrome...
- Jan 23, 2019
- 7 min
A Mother’s Odyssey
It was a great a place to grow up in the 80s. It is where I have all my childhood memories, where I met my husband, and where we go to...
- Dec 28, 2018
- 8 min
Forever
Times in the southern US during the 1940s and 1950s were trying ones, indeed. We were poor. I guess you could say “dirt poor.” I remember...
- Dec 14, 2018
- 7 min
Love Is the Answer
When I head out to my daily walk in the park, I like to remind myself of the poems I love the most, many of which I know by heart...