There’s a privilege in being able to just pack up and move.To just book a trip.To just say yes without hesitation. The privilege of “just.”To just do anything. It’s hitting me hard today. Because I can’t just do anything.Nothing in my life is that simple. Every decision comes with a pause.A calculation.A quiet negotiation with…

Recently, someone said to me, “At least it’s not cancer.” I know they meant comfort. I know they meant perspective. But I want to address something I’ve heard more than once — the idea that if it isn’t terminal, it somehow isn’t worthy of the same weight. Chronic pain is not unworthy of attention. And…

I once imagined my future in wide shots: city skylines, full calendars, a life in constant motion. What I live now happens in close-ups — pill bottles on my nightstand, ER waiting rooms, hands reaching in when mine can’t manage on their own. This isn’t the life I thought I’d have. As a teenager, I…

Ableism doesn’t always announce itself.It doesn’t always arrive as cruelty, confrontation, or rejection. Sometimes, it arrives quietly. It shows up in longer gaps between messages.In invitations that stop coming. In check-ins that feel increasingly surface-level — careful, distant, polite. Nothing is said outright. Nothing is explained. There’s no single moment you can point to and…

It’s a Friday night, I’m at home watching some dumb comedy on Netflix. My friends are out — with friends, with partners, living their lives — and I’m at home in the middle of a pain flare, recovering from a week and a half of pure hell with the flu. Having a pain flare after…

This past week, I learned just how unforgiving the flu can be. I’m still not fully over it, but the 103-degree fever is finally gone. That experience is exactly why I need to say this clearly: if you are immunocompromised, or if you live with any chronic or inflammatory condition — mask up. The flu,…

I was reading an article in The New Yorker about one woman’s experience being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. She wrote, “My experience of feeling unwell for years before I got a diagnosis turns out to be typical.” That line stopped me cold — because it was my experience, too. And it’s the experience of…