Oh the drama!

What to say? For a person with diarrhoea of the fingers, I find myself stumped at what to write, for this my first blog ever. I am not a follower of blogs, however, today I was reading the postings of a friend and was inspired.

In my youth I loved to write letters and capture all of my emotional drama in the pages of my journal. That near daily writing routine was abruptly ended in late 1998 after I was in a car accident that led to my developing chronic pain (Fibromyalgia in my case). Suddenly, it was hard for me to grip a pen, never mind put the pen to paper for more than a line at at time. The onset of my fibro dashed many dreams for me - both big and small - not the least of which was my passion for the written word.

Here I am today, nearly 14 years later, and that need to put my thoughts, dreams and pain into words has once again inspired me to write. Only this time, the words will not be buried in a journal, never to be read by any other eyes but mine. I must get vulnerable and allow others in to share my experiences, perhaps to identify, or ideally to learn.

As a teacher, I am passionate about lifelong learning. People learn in many ways; myself, in school I was always an auditory/linguistic learner. It was not a problem for me to just sit back and listen to the lecture or simply to read the words on the textbook page. As a fan of drama and music, I found that the ability to put information in a song and learn it to a tune would cause the information to sink indelibly into my mind. Fibromyalgia introduced me to a whole new world of learning, one where your own body is the loudest voice, and the only path to true knowledge was through physical experience.

In this blog, I hope to share both the triumphs and the tears. For many years it felt like I was defined by my condition, now however, I recognise that the Fibromyalgia is only one small part of my identity. True the pain can sometimes be the loudest part, but it does not define me and it will not rob me of living my life to the fullest.

Who am I? I am a teacher.
A fiancee.
A daughter.
A sister.
A friend.
A neighbour.
I am a woman.
An activist (in my own mind).
A writer, a reader, a lover of the written and spoken word.
A teaching artist.
A performer.
A scrapbooker.
A shopaholic.
A klutz.
I am this and so much more. And last, but not least, I am a woman who has suffered from Fibromyalgia syndrome for nearly 14 years.