Lidia Yuknavitch, From Reading The Waves: A Memoir Published In 2025

i was not made for this world, spiritually and physically I stand out of place.

is it chronic pain or am i (as my mother would say) being dramatic?

I hate when I'm told not to be bitter, not to be angry, like that's not what kept me alive for so long. The bitterness of having to push through to prove people wrong, to use my existence as a giant "fuck you", you want me to be soft? fuck you.

"I ate extra bleached paper as a child." "what are you? a cop?" "immortality costs an arm and a leg, I'm on a loan." "you know that fear of getting caught in an escalator?" "it's a long story including, (insert unhinged items), (random person)< (weird location)" (switch it up each time)

Some funny/less paltable things you can say when people invasively ask why you have a mobility aid!

"It's a weapon."

Ignore them

Something dramatic like "Oh I was attacked by a shark" or "I got caught in a zombie apocalypse"

"It's to spice up my outfit"

"I tried to build an army of insert favorite animal and they turned on me :("

"What insert mobility aid?"

"Why do you have an insert mobility aid?"

"Why do you not have an insert mobility aid"

"Do I know you?"

"Yeah I guess I just couldn't wait for my 60s"

"Just to bother you."

"Just to confuse you."

"Wouldn't you like to know"

"I went through a wildly traumatic experience, thanks for asking"

RB/comment your go-to when somebody asks about your mobility aid!

oh...that's why my "rest day" ended in more pain :/

Fun fact! Did you know that if you don't move around enough with chronic pain, that it will hurt just as bad if you move around too much?! So no matter what you do, there is only

pain˚✧ ﾟ.

anyone have tips for moving out of state? I might be going out of state for school and I'm scared out of my rocker.

when I said my account was a safe place, I was excluding the problem men.

The goods one are welcome and loved, but the bad ones? I let God deal with you.

^^^^^^