Just Say It! - 9/25/26

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 Hey everyone,

I was just thinking about life today in general, about where I've come from, from San Diego to returning to Virginia, a place that I lived when I graduated high school.

In San Diego I used to type, yes, a real typewriter, little statements on half sheets of paper. I titled it always "Just Say It" and it was just random thoughts, something that just came to mind in the moment. I used to do that every morning. I miss it.

Today I am challenged by cognitive change to put my thoughts down on paper to remember as well as to find the right words. I find I struggle to keep my thoughts focused and lined up so that I can recall them as I'm speaking or typing. Thanks to Wispr Sync I can at least talk them through.

When I got diagnosed with an illness in 2013, 2014, I'd only been sober a couple of years and I felt like my whole world had been taken out from under me. My life was over. I moved to Virginia thinking that that was the end of my story, of my purpose, of my right to live life fully.

I thought I was moving back to an area that I remembered as a place full of hate for those who were like me: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender non-conforming, pansexual, whatever it may be. I had come to a point where I just accepted my fate but what I thought was my fate was an opportunity:

- to challenge myself to live life

- to experience life all new

- to stop putting off things for tomorrow and start living life today

- to live one day at a time in a brand new way

- to live in a state that had once been full of hate but now was trying to change into a place of acceptance

I am grateful that I took that opportunity. I'm grateful that more than 10 years later, living with this condition, I can say that it really is about living, not about dying, not about being sick all the time. It's about living life. I'm grateful that I can take dreams that I put off for tomorrows and live them today. I'm grateful that I get to advocate and travel to other countries, countries I never thought I'd be able to go to in my lifetime. I'm grateful for the friends that I've gained and the friends yet to come.

As I post this moment I'm going to just say it: life is a beautiful thing and it's full of many gifts. 

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