The Story of My Life

  Everyone is unique. We have different life experiences, different upbringings, and yes the obvious, different genes. A little bit of each of these are what makes you who you are. They give us our own stories to tell. I remember having to do timelines in class when trying to put events in chronological order. That is exactly how our mind works. We may not remember every single detail, but we do remember the big events in our lives.
  Last year was a year that as much as I want to, I will never forget. At one point, I was hospitalized for a month due to two life-threatening infections. I had three surgeries over the course of about a week and was not very lucid for most of it. These surgeries left me with three pretty significant scars. Later on this same year, I had to go through yet another surgery that left me with an even bigger scar. Being a girl and having visible scars is a very hard thing to get used to. I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out how I could hide them or at least make them less noticeable. Recently, I saw an interview on Chelsea Lately with model, Padma Lakshmi. About halfway through the interview I noticed a long scar on her right arm. I googled her and found out that she had been in a really bad car accident with her parents when she was really young. Instead of me paraphrasing the entire interview, here it is.. http://www.lakshmifilms.com/padma_lakshmi_press2.htm
  Seeing Padma on Chelsea Lately, to me, was like a little nudge from God saying, "Be proud of your scars. They have made you the person you are today". (They do say that he works in mysterious ways). My mother sent me an email once that had an amazing poem in it about what it means to be a good woman. My favorite part of this poem was, "A good woman does not live in fear of the future because of her past. Instead, she understands that her life experiences are merely lessons, meant to bring her closer to self knowledge and unconditional self love." I don't try to hide my scars anymore. Maybe one day I will show them off but I do feel like I am finally becoming the woman that I have always wanted to be. They are my timeline. They are the story of my life.