The Girl Who Cried Wolf — Kristi Page

Thursday of last week was a big day for me. Actually, scratch that. It was a huge day. A milestone. That Thursday, every moment of pain and struggle over the last two years finally amounted to something…

My boyfriend, Jordan, is my best friend and my rock. We’ve built our relationship’s foundation on a deep-seated love for food and the understanding that, in so very many ways, our realities with young adulthood are both…

Living with a chronic illness is difficult, all the more so because most of my symptoms are invisible and largely undetectable by everyone else. My family has always lived by a “tough love” philosophy regarding health: Unless…

My life is busy. People have suggested to me on more than a few occasions that maybe it’s even a little too busy, especially for someone with underlying health issues. I’d be outright lying if I didn’t…

Lupus, I have a hate for you that runs through my veins. It’s a part of every fiber of my being and will be until the day I die. In one fell swoop, you turned my entire…

When healthy in the past, I looked at illness as a fairly static state of being. But what has become increasingly more apparent to me over nearly two years with lupus is that life with a chronic…

In my family, death is not a topic of taboo; we speak both incredibly openly and comfortably about the subject. By the time I was only 3 years old, my family had lost three of four grandparents,…

My life is a waiting game, and a cruel one at that. The fact that my chronic illness has no cure means that I’ll spend my entire life in fear of flares, knowing they’re inevitable and that…

Today was an important day for me. Coming home from work, I found an envelope with my name on it. Inside was a letter from my university inviting me to join an honor society. Through my academic…

Telling you about my chronic illness was nerve-wracking. I couldn’t help but feel anxious and vulnerable revealing something so incredibly personal. It involved unveiling the very worst part of myself, hoping that somehow, despite its significance,…

If I’ve learned one thing about living with an invisible illness, it’s that my life exists in limbo. Though I generally tend to feel good, I live knowing that in the last two years, I’ve never…

When I think about love, I think of my parents. Though they’ve been together for the better part of 35 years, the best word I’d use to describe their relationship is not “everlasting” (though that would be…