I just wanted to be like the other children! That is all I wanted to do, be a normal kid. There is not anything wrong with that, is there? I refused to be different. I think that most kids feel the same way. Deep inside we all know that we either look, feel or are mentally different.
I can only really speak for myself but I have a strong feeling that all sick kids feel similar. I was blessed in the way that, by looking at me you could not tell I was sick until you got to know me. That made it a bit easier for me to want to “fit in” with my friends. There were issues I suffered, but I was sure of myself and struggled to be like everyone else. The best thing that my parents did for me was to let me try to be a kid when I could. It helped me to have a purpose in my life other than being ill all of the time. As I grew older, fitting in was a bit easier because I was resilient, but being a sick teenager was even more difficult than a sick child. Again, my parents managed to still let me “live my life.” The one thing I learned from this as an adult is that by allowing me to try to fit in, my parents allowed me have a higher self esteem. For that, I thank my family.
