Hi all, I’m currently recovering from surgery and thought it seemed as good a time as any to look through the November Link-Up prompts from A Chronic Voice! This month’s prompts are:
- Meeting
- Advocating
- Tweaking
- Working
- Curating
Meeting
Meet ups, whether they be in person, online or virtually in a game are all important. We all need some sort of social interaction to stay connected and involved and I’m certainly no exception!
Although I consider myself an introvert and find social gatherings physically draining, I also love my friends (and fiancé) more than anything and meeting up with them in whatever form works is important to me. With having been stuck in bed so much of this year and now heading home to recover from surgery, my meetings have been less than I’d have liked, so I’m incredibly grateful to those who make their way over to mine and give me the best gift, their time.
Advocating
It makes me so happy that I’ve been able to interact and learn from so many health advocates this year. From mental illness advocates to seizure advocates like myself, I love that we’re talking more freely about previously hushed up subjects.
The stigma to keep illnesses quiet for fear of ridicule or judgment is still very much in existence, but I feel it’s heading in the right direction. The online Chronic community is an amazing place for acceptance, advice and sometimes a good cry! I talk about health a lot on this blog, which is me advocating support about them.
I hope be an advocate for those suffering with Seizures in particular but also for mental health conditions. My seizures aren’t specifically epilepsy which means I really struggled finding support online and in person for them as they didn’t fit ‘in a box’. I’ve had to learn to live around having seizures since 17 and have managed to study, work and love alongside them. If I can help anyone else dealing with similar then i’d love to!
Tweaking
A little tweak here, another there, many of us are perfectionists and are always looking for ways of making things ‘perfect’ to us. I’ve mentioned my tendency to over analyse before, and it’s definitely something I try to work on but I also hope it means I give the best I can when I do something.
Social Media too, is all about tweaking. It lets us show the world a tweaked version of ourselves which we can edit and filter til we feel comfortable. Whether this is very good for us mentally is another matter as it causes us to look at others through their tweaked filters and possibly feel inadequate. It’s important to remember that when we see anyone online it’s through a filtered view!
Working
I normally work from home full time as a business consultant but the awful illness and pain which hit me this year has taken me off work for several months and resulted in surgery. It’s been a difficult time and I’m trying my best to be kind to myself, but I feel like such a failure for not being able to work. Hopefully i’ll be recovered and back soon though.
This feeling of failure for not being able to work are very common in the chronic community, even though none of us chooses to be ill. It’s only through kindness and self honesty that we can work out our limitations and hopefully find a form of work which fits in with our lifestyles. I truly believe that with reasonable adjustments and support most anyone can find some kind of work.
Curating
I’d like to think I’m some kind of a curator. I enjoy coming up with ideas and love having projects and seeing things through. This blog is a project I’ve thought up, manage and produce and my cosplaying also requires ideas, planning and work for a good outcome.
There are few things as satisfying for me as completing a project. This is true for me at work and also with my creative projects in the home. I love choosing a character i’m going to make the outfit of, researching the design and fabrics and then moving out to sketching and sewing.
With my blog too, I select topics, research if necessary and edit what i’m presenting to the public. I like to hope occasionally I offer something interesting!
These November Link-Up topics have been a welcome distraction from my recovery! Thanks as always to A Chronic Voice! You can read My October entry Here
If you’ve posted a respond to the link up too, I’d love to read it!
Laters,
Ruthy xo
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