Have you ever had moments where an idea came to your mind and you wanted to write it down? That was me at night during the first two months of writing my book. There were times I wanted to jump out of bed and begin writing, but I couldn’t. I had to wait until somebody got me up in the morning. The first month of writing my book, I had many sleepless nights. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Getting new ideas to expand my chapters is exciting and exhausting at the same time.

Over time I slowly told my siblings about my writing, but I didn’t tell mom and dad for a whole year. A part of me wanted to see how long I could keep it a secret. With Christmas coming up, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to surprise my parents. By that time I had already written four and a half chapters. On the morning of Christmas, we finished opening presents and my oldest sister was about to give them a copy of what I had written. I immediately felt overwhelmed with emotions because I had poured out my feelings into my book. I hadn’t expected to be so emotional. After my mom finished reading chapter two to the family, everybody was in tears. It was the most touching moment.

Having severe cerebral palsy is really frustrating physically, mentally, and socially. Things go wrong every single day. As I kept writing, I was able to explain my deep feelings. Over time, my mom and my sister talked to me about how much negativity my writing contained. The purpose of writing is expressing our feelings. The more I thought about it, the more I realized my writing wasn’t representative of who I am. Everybody knows me as a positive and uplifting person. Growing up I had learned to bury my frustrations and look past myself. With my slow communication, I never got the chance to talk about my deep feelings. Over the last two and a half years, I have gained better ideas of how to express in writing the way I cope with my frustrations and live to the best of my abilities.

Next week I will share a song that I wrote about my everyday life.