The beginning of the writing journey…

Ten Years Later…

Having multiple childhood memories of being in hospitals, with yet another foot surgery looming ahead, I started thinking about the process of physical healing. I wanted to reflect on the experience of surgery and the healing process while actually going through it.  I also wanted to keep myself busy since there is a lot of sitting around when your leg is in a cast. I started writing about my childhood and how growing up with limitations influenced many of my life choices; from the feeling of being different but trying to blend in, developing humor and anger for coping, to going to NYC to be an actress but not being able to escape my feet. I wrote about my parents raising me as if I had no deformity, but experiencing stares and questions during each new stage of my life. Then growing up and having to take control of my own feet health and recognize my actual limitations. 

What I didn’t consider when I started writing, was that if we are lucky, life goes on.  Ten years later, when I unearthed my first draft, I found myself moved out of NYC, with a child, and wearing leg braces that make my ailment much harder to hide. 

With honest reflection and humor, I explore the definition of normal and the challenges of fitting into societal expectations when trying to hide a disability. I tell tales of my innate ability to stick out even when trying so hard to blend in. My memoir spans 43 years and was written over 10 of them. It starts with me as a child who wanted to be a normal kid and ends with me as a mom who wants her own kid to know that it’s ok to be different.