I ate all the meringues.
"My mother was an alcoholic. She married my father when she was 16. By the time she was 21, she had given birth to three children. When my father left to serve in WWII, my mother had a nervous breakdown. I was probably two at the time. Our neighbors who...
They thought I was a monster.
"I’m only 16 but I’m a senior in high school. I plan to go to college next year and study political science. That’s my favorite subject. I really want to run for public office someday—maybe congress. I’m not sure I aspire to become president. The highlight of my life...
I sit here on this corner.
"I sit here on this corner every morning. I’m a musician. I play the guitar mostly in the evenings. If I could tell the world one story it would be that I have ankylosing spondylitis. It causes the vertebrae in your spine to fuse. About 30 years ago, a...
I don’t like sour cream.
"When I was 14 months old, I became very sick with pneumonia. The doctor was called to our house--not to attend to me, but to help my mother who was giving birth to my baby brother. After my brother was born, the doctor saw how sick I was and picked me up...
I want to show you my scar.
"I want to show you my scar." She stretches out her left arm to reveal a long and wide scar that starts at the pit of her elbow and ends at the place on her wrist where a nurse might check a pulse. “I did this to myself. Six years ago I was lonely and...
