I have heard a lot of comments throughout my 19 years of living with a Congenital Heart Defect and life threatening lung disease called Pulmonary Hypertension. Many of which have had to do with my scar or the way my voice sounds. A few times in elementary and middle school; kids would tell me how they wished they had a heart defect so they could get out of participating in P.E. When I was younger, I knew they weren’t trying to be mean or anything and that they just didn’t know any better. They didn’t know how it felt to sit on the side lines and watch as your friends ran back and forth and how you wished so much you could run just like them without getting tired. They didn’t know what it felt like to be the “cheerleader” for the team when you so badly wanted to be on the field with them. That was when I was 11 to about 13 years old that I got those comments. So going into college, I thought since P.E. wasn’t mandatory; I wouldn’t get any comments about me sitting out of … [Read more...]
