“Two years ago, my three-year-old daughter, Mila, looked at me with sadness and asked, ‘Mommy, why doesn’t anyone in my books have cochlear implants, like me?’ My heart sank. I knew I had to do something about the lack of hearing representation. Because if I didn’t, then who would?”
“I finally reach the window, and sure enough, there is a man taking a dung five feet away. He is smiling at us. A weird, creepy smile. At this point, I’m desperately trying to close the blinds so none of my other students get a glimpse, but the classrooms were old and everything sucked. As I was trying to put the blinds down, they broke. THEY BROKE.”
“Now, looking back to that perfect, baby girl, it’s like God heard my prayers and gave me the exact desires of my heart, even down to those beautiful curls, because quickly thereafter He would break my heart completely.”
“Without you, Addiction, I’m doing things I’ve never thought were possible.”
“Just 6 weeks ago, I’d worn a fitted mermaid bridal gown. You would never be able to tell I had a massive tumor growing inside of me. I was about to get the ultimate education in cancer.”
“My grandpa left me with a note: ‘Jennifer, lean on me.’ It was the clearest message I could have received.”
“I remember those sick days vividly. Lying in my pajamas with my favorite blanket, as comfy as possible to try to soothe the misery of my pounding head and aching chest. It always seemed so hard to get up, even just to shower or attempt to eat. Not much sounded good anyway.”
“When I was released from rehab, I had nowhere to go, no parents, no daughter, no money, nothing.”
“On the good days, the hardest days, the tired days… on all the days, I’ll live this life. Not because he can’t, but because I can. For me, for others, for him.”
“I had two choices: make my kid go into school feeling confused, hurt, uncomfortable, and unworthy or drive away. I drove away.”
