Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Tag line #HAWMC

Today's challenge: come up with a tag line, & make it catchy. The name speaks for itself: Make This Look Awesome. I chose that name because it was a snappy answer to the frequent "you don't look that sick!" Why thank you! I do make this look awesome don't I? Because of course, we can't judge a person's problems just by looking at them. We have these things called diagnostic tests because we know you can't diagnose just by looking. Oh sure, there are a lot of obvious and apparent causes, but most of what's going on with us humans is going on inside in a world hidden from view. Thank goodness too! I don't want to watch my stomach digest food. It was pretty going into my mouth. That's how I'll remember it!

Make this look awesome... Like the Missouri great, Mark Twain wrote, if you can make it seem like it's better than the best, then folks will pay money to join in.

The truth is, when symptoms are managed, people with a chronic illness are no less happy than healthy people, it's a scientific fact. Which is good news, because chronic illness is unavoidable as we grow older. 96% of seniors have one chronic illness! But there's one key little word in that study that makes all the difference in quality of life: managed. If the symptoms are not managed... Life, the experience of it and participation in it, can be a living hell.

Make this look awesome! It's a battle-cry in defiance of that hell. Oh, sure, we may get sucked down in it, but we fight, and we don't let hell defeat us! Because no matter what pain my disease decides to put me through, if I can just stick the landing, I'm good. We all go through hell, and the world throws the most miserable of circumstances at us. The pain can be brutal, soul-stealing, and terrifying... But ride it through to the other side and there we are: triumphant, radiant, awesome!

It's been 12 years since this whole journey began. I didn't want to be a part of this world. I fought against joining its ranks. But since I'm here, I'll do everything I can to empower my fellow survivors. It's especially difficult for those who once knew what it was like to be on top of there game, able to manage life's difficulties with ease. If I were my mother, I'd have two daughters and three mortgages under my belt by now. My oldest would be 12 in her first year of Junior High.

As it is on my worst days, I feel no better than a 12-year-old, over-dramatic, and desperate for attention! If I were only short enough, I'd dress as a Japanese Goth Lolita. Would you like to hear some of my poetry? On my good days, I'm still that powerful, go-getting woman, with all the skills and wisdom that decades provide. I don't have the Three M's (mortgage, marriage, mommy), but that also means I have the freedom to do whatever I want with my life, and I am by no means done.

Make this look awesome! It's my mantra to live up to, my brand by which I must stand, and how I remember each day to try my best, regardless of what I might face... Make this look awesome! Because if there's no one else, I at least am watching me, and I want to treat myself with the respect I deserve.

Make this look awesome... Putting a positive spin on chronic illness.

What's yours?

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