Hey Steff, by the way, we end up keeping the “ff”. It’s working for us. Good on you! Wow, you’re about to be 14. And I’m about to be 24. The next 10 years of your life are going to be… hard. They’re going to break you down and build you up over and over… and over again.
You’re going to deal with a lot. You’re going to fall in love and get your heart broken a few times. You’re going to deal with mental illness. It’s going to feel impossible, but you’re going to get help and it will be the best decision you ever make for yourself.
You’ll graduate high school and decide that college isn’t the best option for you. You’ll get a job, make new friends, and you’ll finally make it to LA. Your dream vacation! You’ll even go back because you love it so much, but we always knew we would.
Things will be fine for a while until you wake up one day in a lot of pain. Your world will be completely flipped upside down. You won’t be able to work anymore. Friends will be lost. You’re going to be told that you have a chronic illness and it’ll never go away. Your life will become doctors’ appointments, but honestly, you won’t mind. We’ve learned to love the doctors.
You’re going to start a website to write about your life and how this illness affects you. This will throw you into a whole new chapter of your life. You’ll start advocating for AS, you’ll get discovered by Health Union and start writing articles for thousands of people to read!
An article you won’t even think is good will reach A QUARTER OF A MILLION PEOPLE. You won’t know how to feel, but you’ll be so happy and overjoyed that you’re helping people. That will become your goal in life.
You’ll make a ton of new friends in the chronic illness community. Life still gets incredibly difficult at times, but you’re surrounded by a ton of supportive people and you’re so thankful for them every day.
You still won’t be exactly sure of where life is going to take you, but it’ll be okay. You take it one day at a time, and are learning to not overthink everything.
Steff, you’re in for a whirlwind of shit. It’s going to shape the person you become (me). We’re okay. We’re learning and we’re okay.
Love,
2020 Steff