Spit and Spaghetti #12

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Pitches from Wind and Wall

The Sun — Readers Write

Diagnosis

A diagnosis is a line. There is a before and after. It carries information and intent and intensity. It builds and crescendos and resonates. It clarifies and shakes and scares. I am middle aged women living with Turner syndrome — a genetic condition in which a female is missing all or part of an X chromosome. The syndrome occurs in one of every 2,500 live female births. Ninety-eight percent of babies with Turner syndrome are miscarried.

My diagnosis was delivered when I was 15, following a year of pain, blood tests, and questions. It changed everything. I shrouded my diagnosis in silence for years — except when talking with my medical team — until I participated in a study at the National Institutes of Health, one of the few places in the world studying people like me. (I was living in Washington, DC at the time, right down the road from the National Institutes of Health, and decided to break my silence.)

I live life downstream from my diagnosis. I am not even five feet tall. I struggle to reach the peddles when I drive and the top shelf at the grocery store. I have a dilated aorta and two heart specialists. I have witnessed thirty years of shifts and changes in hormone replacement therapy protocols — managing all the symptoms of menopause over time. I traded invincibility for vigilance before I got my driver’s license. I completed a Ph.D. focused on wide-awakeness to live into a life I was not supposed to have. I built a career speaking a “just watch me” mantra. Today, medical appointments and prescription drugs and tests are my rhythm. I do what I can to stay present and not live waiting for proverbial shoe to drop.

My diagnosis taught me a few things. It invited me into a life that knew too much too soon— too many big words, too many specialists looking at every inch of my body, too many dreams changed before they were even imagined. It taught me who I am and who I am not — to learn, and relearn, that my diagnosis does not define me. It forced me to confront mortality. It gave me gratitude for it all.

Institute for Rural Journalism & The Lantern

To Dispelling the Misery of the World: A Conversation with David Sawyer

As a Kentucky native and AmeriCorps Alum, this note is written to share a story. In December of 2022, The Lantern published a story celebrating the life of David Sawyer.I was part of the inaugural AmeriCorps class, and worked with David in the New Generation Training Program. In 2019, I interviewed David — “To Dispelling the Misery of the World.”

I always found David’s guidance wise and timely. Would the Institute for Rural Journalism be interested in sharing this interview? I will also be reaching out to the Lantern to gauge interest in this piece.

American Lung Association

We All Breathe The Same Air: A Conversation with Janice Nolen

I found your contact information looking for someone at the American Lung Association who might be interested in this interview. (I noticed you wrote the press release that Introduced Laura Kate Bender as Vice President, Nationwide Advocacy and Public Policy.)

I am reaching out to share an interview I conducted with Janice Nolen — “We All Breathe The Same Air: A Conversation with Janice Nolen.” (She was a dear friend.) Her words are hopeful. I stood in awe of her commitment to clean air and the work of the American Lung Association — especially during the time of year when she worked on the State of the Air Report. Her story of strength and advocacy are an example of how far we have come and what it will take to never go back.

I am not exactly sure exactly what form sharing this interview might take. I just believe — I know for sure — Janice would want to weigh in on our current situation.

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