A Bit of M.E

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My First Blog Post

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

A few weeks ago, I went back into the working life. Nothing exciting. 20 hours a week in a retail shop. I am also going to college once a week, working on assignments, volunteering online and trying to find the time to rest.

Why, why, why am I doing all this?

Simple reasons. I need to work for money. I’m going to college to train to be a counsellor. I enjoy volunteering. All together? I’m exhausted. My brain is so foggy but I’m still trying.

All in all, I’m coping well. I’m moving forward in my treatment, which I’ll tell you about another time.

On the other side, I’m bored and already fed up of working. Dealing with the general public at Christmas time? Man, many people do NOT spread the Christmas cheer to the people serving them in the shop, no matter how chipper I am – and I HATE being chipper while at work. My legs ache, I’m tired and I just found out I’m working ALL OF CHRISTMAS. YA CAN AT LEAST BE NICE TO ME.

If anyone is reading this, I hope your Christmas is heading in the right direction. I hope you spread the kindness and have kindness spread to you.

Did any of this make sense? I dunno. I have some brain fog.

Brain fog is a symptom of ME. It makes your brain feel all “uhhh…”, like theres a cloud in your head. Someone could tell you 1+1=2 but you can’t believe or process it. Don’t even ask someone with brain fog to make a decision. It’s impossible.

Let me explain M.E

“What’s M.E? I must have that too! I’m always tired.”

Stop. Just stop. This is one of the worst things you can say to someone with M.E. It’s up there with “you just need some decent sleep” or “you’re just lazy” or even “why don’t you try exercising more to build your stamina?”

I get it. A lot of people are tired. But M.E tired? Friends, that’s a whole other level. It’s a tired that takes over your life. Your ability to live, to work, to go to school, to even get up to pee! It’s exhausting. It hurts. If your tired isn’t debilitating your life, than you’re doing pretty okay. Maybe try a new routine, diet, whatever. For M.E, for me, it’s not so simple.

Imagine being depressed and explaining the black hole of emptiness to someone whose never felt it. Imagine explaining the pain of child birth to anyone whose never given birth to children. Imagine trying to explain your own pain of any medical condition to someone healthy. You get the picture.

I want to become more of an advocate for M.E, as for years, I rejected it and hid from it. So I’m gonna blog into at the world, at you, at no one to maybe help one person or myself.

I’ll share my symptoms, my struggles and my successes (the fancy 3 S’s).

Bye for now, friends

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.