From Normal to Broken to the Bold and Beautiful. This is my story.

in #introduceyourself7 years ago (edited)

Hello to my fellow Steemians! Your support for my earlier posts is so overwhelming that it makes me want to keep coming back here. I thankyou immensely for the love.

I thought I’ll do a blog post this time instead of a video, because whenever I tried shooting for this, I ended up in tears. My makeup melted away and I felt naked. Stripped off of conscious efforts to keep smiling no matter what. My brain kept telling me I had to look pretty and I had to remain calm... but cutting out the bullshit, I turned off my camera and realised I’m not capable of talking about this side of me with a straight face. And it’s okay if I don’t want to show myself like that to the world.

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What I’m about to share with you is my true and raw self speaking a 1000 mindful words in hope of inspiring another 18 year old Donna somewhere to take charge of her life. It wouldn’t matter to me at this point if this post doesn’t garner much attention, because this one goes out to those who are going through something like this, and all I want to tell you is, that there is still hope for you. This is not the end, you will get better and you will fly high if you believe that you will. Because I did.

2 years ago on the 8th of July 2015, I broke a sweat, vigorously swimming for an hour, exhausted and late for my dance lesson. I was 18 years old back then and was always high on energy no matter what.
I loved myself, I loved what I was doing with my music career, I had no insecurities - body and mind, I was an extrovert who had a massive group of friends who meant pretty much the world to me as a teenager.

As I was running late, I started to rush. I was exiting the premise and I accidentally slipped on a wet marble staircase, landed on the edge of a step, on my tail bone and went sliding all the way down the stairs on my back.
In those 3 very painful seconds, I heard my spine shatter. The cracks echoed in my ear while I was trying to shut out the pain. But it didn’t, and it eventually made it’s way out through deafening screams.
I was in the hospital for 3 days, slipping in and out of consciousness, as though my brain refused to cause me more pain by keeping me awake.
I had 2 serious fractures, 3 hairline, massive compression just above my tail bone and a gap caused due to the compression, all in my spine. Ya, I got messed up pretty bad.
When it was time to take me home for the long bed rest, I was screaming and howling in pain all the way from the gate to my bedroom because the only way to get there was by walking.

The next 6 months... I made little progress.
But mentally, I was broken. Shattered. Scarred.
A girl who was independent, a traveller, who loved outdoors, had a blasting social life was now confined to four white walls, incapable of walking, incapable of doing things “normal” people did. I felt alone, dependent and miserable.

My regular friends visited me for four weeks. My best friends visited me for 6 weeks. And then... everyone was gone. Eventually the phone stopped buzzing, and the only people who I saw apart from my family were passerby’s on the street through my window.
It’s like time had stopped for me but not for everyone else. I was suppose to be checking out colleges, filling applications, applying for scholarship because I wanted to study music abroad but I just couldn’t because of my physical disability. I wasn’t like ‘normal’ people anymore.
The darkest phase taught me how life was so fragile, and I should be glad I survived with no major complication.
I guess one of the hardest things for me back then was to try and NOT slip into depression. Because when I saw myself in the mirror after 6 months, I saw that I had grown fat because of sleeping and laying down all the time. I couldn’t accept this new version of me. I started to get insecure of things that I never thought of before. My face, my body, my skin, the stretch marks,..
I was in shock. I used to be 55 kgs,... and now after the accident. I hit 106kgs.
I hated me. I hated all of me.

I started walking again after a year, but I was still in pain and overweight. I had no confidence left, I had college seniors picking on me, teachers yelling at me for missing college because I needed to rest my back, and was always getting into trouble for not being able to do things due to my health condition. The head of department even asked me to quit college if I can’t show up more frequently and to sit at home, if my back pains so much. It was a taunt.

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People were ignorant and hurtful. But I forgive them today as I write this post. Thankyou for not believing in me because I am the only one who has to. Thankyou for not helping me because I’m the only one who can. Thankyou for causing me pain because it has made me immune.
And most of all, thankyou for making fun of the way I looked back then, or else I would’ve never gotten out of my comfort zone to pursue becoming the best version of me, body, mind and soul.

Today as I write, am yet again a strong, beautiful and independent woman, a little more wiser, a hell lot stronger and a badass performer.

I am motivated, driven and compelling towards my weight loss story.
I learnt a very important lesson through all of this that I want you, my reader to know. NEVER. EVER. EVERRR. STOP. BELIEVING. IN. YOURSELF.

EVER.

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I want you to know that I have matured as a 20 year old, have fewer friends and most importantly I have accepted myself.
I really really love who I am and I am blessed to be a part of this world.
I am determined to lose weight because I want to live a healthy and long life but the first step before all this was pure acceptance and love.
I have found my one true love, @mistavirus , who is with me on this wonderful journey, as a guide, counsellor, listener, friend, lover and my main support system throughout these 5 years of friendship and 2 years of love. If you feel you have nobody to vouch for you, you need to know I am right here. Because I understand your pain.

So don’t shy away from those mirrors anymore. Don’t hesitate to look yourself in the eye and say you fucking love yourself because you have the power and mind to be who ever the heck you want to be. I am here for you. I am here to help you if you need me. If you wish to reach out to me, I’m listening.

Thankyou for taking the time to read my story. I hope I will get to read yours.

With love,
DC.

Me before the accident : @55kgs

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Me after the accident : @106kgs

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Me now : @95kgs

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This is a hell of a true life story, it is the zeal to never be where they want you to be, you see, no one can give happiness, you have to be happy yourself that is what attract people to you, your happiness should not depend on anyone, you are stronger and you will get there welcome to the community of love, the fact that you want to help people after what you have gone through makes you a rare gem indeed, i am humble by your determination and character that you showed in the face of adversity...well done and see you around.

Thankyou so much for reading. It means a lot a lot to me that you were able to understand the purpose and emotion behind this post.

Hello, you are welcome to steemit!!! I give you upvote and a small amounth of love

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Hello, you are welcome to steemit!!! I give you upvote to your post and remember to follow me as a friend to help you grow in this social network!

Welcome ^_^

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by DonnaCharlie from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

Welcome to steemit @donnacharlie. Join #minnowsupportproject for more help. @OriginalWorks will help you verify original content .
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Upvote this comment to keep helping more new steemians

The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @donnacharlie to be original material and upvoted(1.5%) it!

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Wow, that is heart breaking to know your life suddenly just changed, all because you were in a rush and didn't take the time to be careful! We all make mistakes but learn to grow and move forward from them, eventually if they are quite bad.

I am so happy to hear you are working hard and already in love with Steemit and sharing your journey, losing 11KGs so far is a big amount and you will reach your ideal weight once more.

Keep looking forward and working hard. :)

Thankyou for reading and thankyou for your encouragement. I am blessed to have met such wonderful people here on steemit such as your self 🙂🖤

Hi @donnacharlie glad to have you here at steemit. I just love it when people share their life experiences here in steemit most specially those who has the courage to open up their most difficult demons and shared how they conquered it. Stay being awesome :) To help you out let me call some bots for you @originalworks #untalented @steem-untalented (please don't mind the names those are misnomers). I hope you consider joining us at steemgigs which is lead by our mentor and inspiration @surpassinggoogle who believes that we can discover our awesomest version of ourselves here to a path of greatness and greatness is a blessing to humanity all the time.

Thankyou very much @ankarlie . Thankyou mostly for taking the time to read my post. It means a lot to me. I will surely follow your mentor and probably seek guidance myself :)

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welcome to steemit.

welcome to steemit community

Thankyou Dante :)

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Thank you for sharing your story with us, @donnacharlie! What an inspirational tale of pushing through all the sudden changes that life threw your way and keeping your fire lit to keep on going forward each day.

People were ignorant and hurtful. But I forgive them today as I write this post. Thankyou for not believing in me because I am the only one who has to. Thankyou for not helping me because I’m the only one who can. Thankyou for causing me pain because it has made me immune.
And most of all, thankyou for making fun of the way I looked back then, or else I would’ve never gotten out of my comfort zone to pursue becoming the best version of me, body, mind and soul.

This paragraph alone tells me that you are far more matured than most other 20-year-olds. I know I certainly wasn't in that mind space when I was your age (oh god now I feel old haha). You're already lightyears ahead of most of your peers with that kind of mentality!

It hit a nerve for me when you talked about all your friends leaving you eventually, because I could relate in some way. Pretty much all of my friends that I had growing up always ended up leaving me one day. I hope that you have managed to find better friends who will truly stick by you when the going gets tough!

As for the weight loss thing...great job so far! Do keep it up! I weighed 230 lbs this time last year, and in just 4 months I managed to get myself down to 165. I know that you can make it to where you want to be again, especially with this strong, fiery passion you have, which has shown through in your writing here!

You're off to such a great start already here on Steemit! I look forward to seeing more of your posts in the future :)

Thankyou so much. So much of love all in one comment I am overwhelmed 😁🙈🖤 GREAT JOB on your weight loss. I look forward to asking you About your go to tips and tricks 😁🐈

Wow, you went through a lot to become the person you are today. Congratulations on becoming who you are now.

u learned this is what the whole story ... its sad to know your story but i hope so you will encourage people by your story .. take care of your self and be happy ..

I already said this to you in voicechat in mdp discord bit you are beautiful in alllll of these pics. As a musician i know the pressure to be thin is strong. Resist it. You are beautiful in and out. If you are eating healthy thats all thag matters imo!!

You look quite good now, one day you will become great.

Never give up.

Beautiful story. COngratulations for learning such important lessons so early in life.

Nice story @donnacharlie! Welcome to steemit! I know you will succeed here because you have a good heart and you write really well. Upvoted! Keep posting and stay awesome! 💙

Welcome to Steemit, Donna. Thank you for sharing your story. Glad to know, how you turned your life around by believing in yourself. Your article was spot on. Thank you for sharing once again.

You go girl! Stay strong and stay true to who you are :) I believe if everyone of us live by the four agreement by Don Miguel Ruiz and not let others bring you down. Your soul will always be free and achieve true happiness.

Heya @donnacharlie
You are inspiring, I suggest you to start publishing your life story.
You seem to be an Interesting personality, I wish to befriend you. Moreover, I would like you to guide me as to How Could I make connections here on Steemit.

Upvoted & Followed, plz stay Connected.

I’m pretty new too! Let’s help each other figure this out. Thankyou for reading ! Let’s stay in touch!

Oh yes,
Have a Good time dear Friend.

You are so brave for telling your story and putting yourself out there like this! I’ve had a somewhat familiar experience. Had a kart accident 2 years ago. I could only lay down for 2 weeks and after that only sit down for months... gained a lot of weight as well because of this. Still trying to do better and being more healthy. So I feel ya girl. But you are beautiful no matter what size you are. You belong in this world and make it more beautiful by just being you.