PERSONAL: Celebration

If I'm to be honest, it has taken me some time to craft this blog entry. I've been working on it for about four days now. Sometimes I sit down and I'm super inspired to write. It rolls easily off of my fingers and seems eloquent and perfect. Other times, I sit down and nothing makes sense. My head is cloudy and I can't understand up from down, right from wrong, or too much from not enough. It's a weird thing trying to create something for other people to see. Will they like it? Will they care? Will they even read it at all? Having had this blog for 3 years now - HAPPY BLOG BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! - I've learned that at some point, you have to find inspiration. Maybe in the past, maybe in experiences. So I went and found some. [Click HERE or HERE if you would like to see].

Today, I land on what I know. My current situation, my life, my health.

I've gone through a lot of changes in the past five-and-a-half years. Physically and emotionally, everything I knew was flipped on its side, and I'm here today and I'm trying to make sense of the world around me. What do I know? I know that while it seems easy to focus on the negative of my circumstances - the illness, the difficulties, the struggle, the tears - the more noble thing to do is focus on the positives. I know that while things seem hard, there are days when they are better and those are the moments to celebrate.

In honor of my blog - whether it was called Polka-Dot Chronicles, KCinKC, or something else - turning three today, here are some of things I celebrate:

• I celebrate days that my co-teacher and I stay after school and we jam out to BB Mak hits from 2000.
• I celebrate the fact that despite my illnesses, my hair is still curly.
• I celebrate lights, decorations, and the Christmas spirit.
• I celebrate extra time with family that I take advantage of sometimes.
• I celebrate medication that helps keep my condition(s) manageable.
• I celebrate doctors, nurses, and specialists who are all "TEAM KIMBERLY."
• I celebrate the support I receive as I chase my dreams.
• I celebrate the days where my students have what I like to call a "light bulb moment."
• I celebrate girls nights, date nights, and nights where I get to watch TV in my PJ's.
• I celebrate finding a good deal of a new scarf, traveling, big sunglasses, the Kansas City Chiefs, and my friends finding somebody to for the rest of their life.
• I celebrate new socks and college friends.
• I celebrate that I have grown as a human being since being diagnosed five-and-a-half years ago, and have come to know what I'm made of in the past (nearly) three years since I lost my hair.
• I celebrate sunrises and sunsets, and nights when the stars are in clear view.
• I celebrate that I can do something I love, surrounded by people I love every single day.

For fun, I went and scavenged a little to show you how things have changed over the past five-and-a-half years. Sometimes it's crazy to look back and see where we've come from.

   

[May 2010 + December 2011 + October 2012]

 

[January 2013 + February 2013]

  

[September 2014 + March 2015 + November 2015]

I've been lucky in the fact I have a really supportive group of friends. The truth is, there are people that know our history, and there are people who know our core. And no matter how much changes, no matter how much time passes, and no matter how much even we ourselves forget it - you can't replace the core.