On A Personal Note:

When I was young I always carried a journal and would write daily, as I travelled around Canada in my youth I visited every library along the way - it was a good safe place to curl up and spend the day with a book, no one even noticed me. I would write stories, poems, (one is in “Crim 101”) and then as a grew older, became a mother, divorced and eventually entered University in my 30s, my writing changed to academic papers.

In October of 2019 I was attending classes at UofS and came down with what I thought was a Campus Cold, but in retrospect, it had to have been COVID.

My body responded with chronic inflammation, and it reduced my ability to write, and my ability to read comprehensively and retain information.

I had to drop out of university due to this, and it was horrifying- I remember wondering if this was early onset dementia because I would lose simple words, and my ability to forget names is literally disability level lol

I accepted my New Normal and proceeded with life as best as I could.

And I spent years thinking I would never regain that ability.

I would take on jobs that I truly enjoyed, but would hit intense full body burn out within months, due to the schedule demands and inability to take rest days when needed.

thank goodness for the ruling in Bedford v Canada, I was able to maintain financial stability, and thus a stable home.

For the last nearly 2 years I’ve been dealing with increasingly frequent chronic abdominal pain, joint pain, post exertion fatigue and brain fog that altogether made me feel like I was probably dying.

Eventually long story short - our town was blessed to receive an amazing wonderful doctor who took my concerns seriously.

I was diagnosed with endometriosis and Crohn’s and was prescribed an anti inflammatory for the endo. (Not. Dying)

A few weeks after I started the anti inflammatory I realized not only was the daily discomfort and pain diminished, but I wasn’t forgetting things as much, I could sit and read articles and retain memory of what I had read, and my vocabulary was returning!

Just over a week ago I sat down and Just Another Tuesday spilled out of me in about 2 hours.

It feels like a miracle to be able to write and read at a level I haven’t experienced in years.

So I am challenging myself to write daily, and some of may not be that great, some of it might be awesome.

Either way, I’ll be writing

C