In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart
Anne Frank
Picture taken from Pixabay
Recently, a family member told me about a woman who wrote a book on grief for her children after their father died. It was later discovered that she herself killed him. I also read in the news about a man who killed his wife after claiming to love her during his time as a contestant on the Family Feud game show.
It seems there is nothing but bad news, and nothing but hatred in people’s hearts. Sometimes, with all the horrendous things going on, I can’t help but think the worst of humanity. But then I remember the quote above from Anne Frank. She wrote those words even though war was raging around her, even though her people were being rounded up and senselessly murdered.
I also think about the kind people who have helped me throughout my life. As a person with special needs, there have been a lot of people. I think about organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army that have workers and volunteers who go all over the world spending their time helping others.
With this being said, I still believe that there are good people out there, even if sometimes they might seem very rare.
What is Turner Syndrome? In this guest post, fellow blogger Seguilola Salami helps me share a little about what Turner Syndrome is and my experience with it in order to spread a little awareness. Thankyou Seguilola! You can read the guest post here. While there, be sure to also checkout other posts on Seguilola’s blog! If you are into books and love to read, her blog is for you! If you have small children and you are looking for books for them, checkout Seguilola’s blog! She has a lot of recommendations, and you’ll enjoy listening to her adorable daughter give reviews on children’s books and interview authors! Click here to checkout her blog! Enjoy!
Some may I have noticed that I’ve been pretty inconsistent with my activity on my blog. There have been periods when I’ve been pretty inactive. I was really active when I first started my blog. This is because during that time I was taking a break from school, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I enjoy writing and wanted to share my thoughts, so I decided I would like to start a blog.
The blog started going pretty well, and I was having a lot of fun. Until I had to go back to school. Everyone knows how demanding college can be. It’s particularly demanding for me, so I needed to put all of my focus into school. That meant my blog had to take a back seat. Since College can be very hard, there is no doubt I had my own specific challenges.
One particular challenge in school stood out to me. It was during a term when I was taking a writing class. The end of that term was particularly stressful. I struggled to manage preparing for exams I was supposed to take and the paper I was supposed to write for the class. By the time the paper was due, I still wasn’t ready to turn it in. I decided to go to class with an unfinished paper and ask the professor for more time.
I was nervous enough going to class with an unfinished essay, so you can just imagine how nervous I was to ask for more time to complete the essay. However, I sucked up my anxiety and pulled out the courage to approach my professor at the end of class. Unfortunately, my professor said no. I left the classroom defeated, and went into a bathroom stall for a little privacy. As soon as I stepped into the stall, a wave of emotions started crashing down on me, and I couldn’t hold back my tears. All kinds of catastrophic thoughts started flooding my head. What if I fail the class now? What if it brings down my GPA? What if I can’t get into get into the career I want because of that bad grade? I saw a string of failures ahead of me, and felt completely hopeless.
As I cried and terrible thoughts overwhelmed me, I closed eyes and prayed. When I finally managed to stop crying, I left the bathroom and ran into none other the my writing professor. I decided right then that there was nothing I could do about the situation but ask my professor what my grade would look like without the the essay. Her response surprised me.
“Take the weekend”, she said.
Relief instantly hit me. It seemed my prayer was answered. I gave my Professor a genuine and heartfelt thanks.
There are two lessons I took away from this experience. The first is that God always comes through for you. The second I learned later through therapy, and that lesson is one bad situation doesn’t mean the end of the world. Doing poorly on the final paper didn’t mean I would have failed the class, and even if I failed the class that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be able to go into the career I wanted. Plus, even if I were to have trouble getting into a particular career, there are other options. There are always options and always a solution. When one door closes, another always opens, and the door that was closed was closed shut for a reason. You weren’t meant to go through that door.
So, whatever struggle you might be going through, dear reader, know that you can and will get through it. Until next time.
I have mentioned many times on my blog that I have a condition called Turner syndrome. In a recent post, I mentioned my condition eventually led to surgery. Turner syndrome can lead to a lot of complications. One of them is problems with the thyroid gland. That was an issue for me.
I recently had surgery because of issues with my thyroid gland. The surgery ended up leaving a small keloid. The suggestion was given on how to deal with a keloid was through a steroid injection. Cutting out the keloid would only cause a keloid to grow back. So I’ve been getting injections to lower the keloid for a while now.
The doctor has to put the needle right in the keloid, and yes, they hurt a lot. The first time is especially painful, because the keloid is tough. As you continue to get injections, the keloid softens and the injections become less painful. Even with the help I’m getting though, even the doctor admits there is only so much that can be done. I will still have a scar. That’s ok though, because my scar tells my story. So I’m not ashamed of it.
So I’ve recently been denied a service for people with disabilities. This wouldn’t be the first time, but that doesn’t make this situation any less frustrating. I’ve mentioned on my blog before that I am a person with a disability. The problem is that my disability is very unclear. I have an invisible disability, and often others can’t understand what exactly is wrong with me. My physical and intellectual abilities seem to be very much intact. What could I possibly need with disability services, right? Sometimes I even question whether or not I am a person with a disability myself because of all the doubt around me. However, while people are deciding whether or not I am actually a person with a disability, my struggles are very much real, and I deal with them everyday.
I’ve talked about the condition that I have on my blog many times. I have a genetic disorder called Turner syndrome, and it’s the reason for my struggles. Having Turner syndrome does not automatically make a person disabled, however, it can lead to disability. Tuner syndrome can lead to many complications. One of those complications is learning disability. Unfortunately, this fact is not very well known, because Turner syndrome is not well known. Also, girls with Turner syndrome can lead normal lives with proper treatment. However, every girl with Turner syndrome’s experience is different, and some do struggle more than others.
Another issue is the type of disability that girls with Turner syndrome sometimes have. Turner syndrome can lead to nonverbal learning disability. This means they can have issues with visual-spatial skills. Unfortunately, nonverbal learning disability is still not recognized as an official disorder.
All of these combined issues make it hard for me to get the services I need. People simply don’t understand my struggles, and don’t understand why I need help. What is really needed is more awareness on both Turner syndrome and nonverbal learning disability. What is also very needed is an understanding that every person’s experience is different. Not every person with a disability has a disability that is obvious.
Bianca: “You don’t care what people think of you.”
Photo taken from Netflix
I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t have much luck with guys. I actually don’t have much luck with people in general. At least that’s what I can’t get myself to stop thinking all the time.
“That person thinks I’m weird”, I would often tell a family member.
“Why do you think that?”, they would often ask, reminding me that what I’m think is not fact.
“People tend to be selfish and are mostly thinking about themselves”, my therapist would always remind me.
No matter how hard I try to keep what I’m told in mind, it’s often hard for me not to think about what’s others are thinking about me. While watching “Wednesday”, what stuck out to to me was how different I am from the titular character. She genuinely doesn’t care about what people think about her. I care a bit too much about what people think about me. Some professionals who analyzed the show think Wednesday might have autism. This might be why she has so much trouble showing her emotions. I, on the other hand, have borderline personality disorder and often have trouble keeping my emotions in check.
What really caught my attention about Wednesday, however, is that she knows she’s different and accepts that. Her viral dance sequence shows this most. She’s confident and not afraid to be herself. What I love most is that though there are some scenes when she sometimes feels insecure and afraid of being alone and eventually allows friends to have a little influence on her, none of this changes who she is at her core. Wednesday will allows be Wednesday, and through the rough patches, her friends start to accept this. They don’t try to change her. Instead, the relationship that Wednesday has with her friends is reciprocal, especially with her best friend Enid. Wednesday starts the series feeling she is better off alone, and Enid starts the series feeling insecure. The series ends with Wednesday fully accepting Enid’s friendship and Enid gaining confidence.
Watching Wednesday really put into perspective for me how hard it can be to feel different from others, but how easy it can feel to be ok with that when you are comfortable with yourself and have people around you who accept you for who you are. I am definitely still a work in progress, but I am learning to love myself, and when people tell me they love me the way I am, I am learning to believe them.
Growing up, I had a love-hate relationship with my hair. I am a woman of African descent, and people with African roots generally have what we call “kinky” or “coily” hair. I used to love when my mother would style my hair in beautiful braids, and the compliments I would get about them. However, I hated how hard it was for me to style my hair myself. My hair was unruly and difficult to deal with, or at least that’s what I thought.
I had my hair relaxed for the first time when I was still a small child. It was for a wedding. I was still very young, but I was old enough to remember that when I looked in the mirror, I thought I never looked more beautiful. I felt more beautiful too. I also felt like my hair was much more manageable. I didn’t get another relaxer put into my hair again until my late teens, but I continued to straighten my hair with flat irons. In other words, through heat. My hair started to become very damaged from all the heat and chemicals, and I eventually decided to do a “big chop”, or cut off the damaged, relaxed parts of my hair. In the end, I was left with a bit of a buzz cut. As my hair started to grow back, I took the time to learn how to properly take care of my hair and style it.
Many Black women around the world are forgoing the flat iron and relaxers, opting to wear our hair in its natural state instead. A natural hair movement is taking place, and many influencers and companies that sell hair care products have been benefitting from it. Many natural hairstyling videos have been popping up on YouTube to teach black women who choose to go natural how to care for their hair, as well as how to style it. Companies that have been creating haircare products geared towards black women are gaining attention. In fact, in the recent years, there has been a decline in hair relaxer sales. In light of this, some haircare companies that have been previously focused on selling hair straightening products are jumping on the natural hair movement bandwagon.
The movement is not meant to discourage black women from getting relaxers, but rather to encourage each other to feel beautiful and confident regardless of how we choose to wear our hair. I believe there is a lesson every woman can take away from the natural hair movement: you are beautiful just the way you are. It doesn’t matter what our hair texture or skin color might be. We are all queens. After all, diversity is beautiful. Gone are the days when I thought of my hair as unattractive. When I cut my hair, I wasn’t sure I would want to stay natural. Then I looked in the mirror, and thought I never looked more beautiful.
I have mentioned many times on my blog that I have Turner syndrome. Google “Intersex”, and you will see many websites list Turner syndrome as an intersex condition. However, there is a lot of debate on which conditions under the umbrella of Intersex are actually Intersex conditions. Intersex conditions have been a hot topic for a while now, so as someone with what is considered an intersex condition by some, I thought I’d add my two cents.
First thing first, what is “intersex”? The American Psychological Association describes intersex as “a variety of conditions that lead to atypical development of physical sex characteristics…These conditions can involve abnormalities of the external genitals, internal reproductive organs, sex chromosomes, or sex-related hormones”. The term “intersex” was coined in 1917 by German geneticist Richard Goldschmidt when he noticed the phenomenon in gypsy moths while studying them. “Intersex” started being used commonly as a term for humans with certain genetic conditions in 1993 due to a research article written by American biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling.
In her article, Fausto-Sterling states that approximately 1.7 percent babies born worldwide are intersex. American psychologist Leonard Sax responded that the number of people with intersex conditions is actually far lower than 1 percent, and shouldn’t include conditions like Turner syndrome where the person’s phenotype is clearly male or female (meaning the person looks like a typical male or female with the typical male or female genitalia). This is the reason for the intersex debate.
In 2006, the term “Disorders of sex development” was introduced in the medical world. Medical professionals believed the term was easier to define and explain than “Intersex”. However, there is a lot of controversy over this term. Many intersex advocates believe the “Disorders of sex development” does more harm. For instance, many intersex babies undergo surgeries, often unnecessary ones that can cause permanent damage, in order to make the bodies of these babies fit what society deems a typical male or female body. Changing “Intersex” to “Disorders of sex development” medicalizes the bodies of intersex people even more. However, using “Disorders of sex development” gives room for the inclusion of conditions like Turner syndrome, because pretty much all disorders that affect sex development are under that umbrella.
So is Turner syndrome an Intersex condition? That is still up for debate. In my humble opinion though, no, it is not. People with Turner syndrome are all women born with a genetic disorder. There is generally no ambiguity on whether someone with Turner syndrome is male or female, and sex ambiguity is included in being intersex. Turner syndrome does, however, cause sex development issues, like not being able to go through puberty without medical help, making it a clear disorder of sex development.
Hopefully this post has helped someone, and I’ll see you in the next one!
Borderline personality disorder is one of the most stigmatized mental illnesses. People with the condition are considered manipulative. Getting any diagnosis can be freeing, but when someone receives a diagnosis with a stigma, that diagnosis can feel like more of a harmful label.
The video above, however, shows that sometimes there are benefits to being a little bit different, and that’s what it means to have BPD. People with BPD are not manipulative, but simply people who experience emotions differently than others. And there is nothing wrong with being a little different.
Life with Charli 