“Within a week, my stomach grew to appear 5 months pregnant. My entire abdomen was infected with small tumors. ‘You need a full hysterectomy.’ My biggest dream was to have kids. But there I was, 5 days before surgery, hearing the words, ‘You’re pregnant.’”
“I felt like I let Mrs. Fisher down. But what felt like devastation soon turned into a new passion, one fueled by an even greater source of love — my son.”
“I am pretty sure my grandparents were looking down on me that day.”
“He had a lightbulb moment. ‘I cannot continue to inhabit this female body.’ I would be a lesbian woman part of a heterosexual couple. I had no idea what this meant for us.”
“My stomach sank in fear. ‘What if something is really wrong?’ The room was spinning. My house became my safe space. What if I never felt like my true self again? I couldn’t stay home forever.”
“I noticed I was different than my friends. I asked myself, ‘What is normal?’ They could eat when they wanted and didn’t need to prick their finger three times a day.”
“I eventually started looking in the mirror and hating myself. Why wasn’t I perfect? Why wasn’t I happy now I had lost more weight? So, I continued to lose it. And lose it. And lose it.”
“I began to only stim in the privacy of my bedroom or the bathroom and treated it like a dirty secret I’d hopefully grow out of, along with my attraction to boys and all things deemed feminine.“
“There will be days when you have to take the pain minute by minute. You’ll dig deep and find a strength you didn’t know was humanly possible.”
“Jason’s disability is an important part of him, but it’s not the most important thing about him. Disability shouldn’t ever make someone less worthy of finding love.”
