I learned this word before I could spell before I could read
Maybe it wasn’t my first, or my hundredth, but it has stuck with me
In hospital beds and waiting rooms I am constantly reminded
That my body has been fighting against me since the moment I was born
I have not had your privileges of childhood birthday parties and sports teams
I have had to learn lessons at eight most people still don’t understand at twenty
Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
If that is true then I am one insane bitch
Because every day I wake up and I fight
I fight my body, the one thing that is always supposed to support me
But I go to school and I work hard
I make my family and myself proud
I do not give my teachers any reason to doubt me, my skills, or my intelligence
When I had lost nearly all else I had my brain
My wonderful, weird brain that has struggled with illnesses as real as the ones that hurt my stomach and kidneys
So in those hospital beds and waiting rooms I read and I learned
I knew that I would have to make up what I lacked physically with my intelligence
I refused to be weak, and sick, and to give a single person a reason to call me stupid
They still did but I got through it, because I knew they would one day learn my lessons
So here I stand today, a little broken, a little tired, and always chronically ill
But accomplished, intelligent, and an advocate for those who know these truths, even when they themselves cannot speak them.