We, will forever be your greatest actors. Through this perfectly tan skin, are broken bones, breaking more and more by each movement. This flawless skin hides the droopiness of one side of our face. This shiny hair covers the knife stabbing us in the side of our heads. This sing song voice masks the broken words and thoughts of all the forgotten memories and vocabulary. And these eyes, oh the eyes, they avoid eye contact in fear our tears will begin to show. But look closer beyond the sparkly brown, the ocean colored blue, and the shimmering green, and all you will see is black. Nothingness. You will see that every breath we take hurts more than the mean words you throw at us. You will see the words of doctors saying “it’s all in your head” “stop seeking attention.” You will see the sunny days, the rainy days, and the snowy days all missed. Instead you will see the same image of the hospital room walls we stared at forever. You will see the same images from scrolling through social media, looking at our peers living a life that we can not live. But you will see that we are not bitter. No, we did not chose the life that was given to us. However we do not let our disease define us, but rather empower us. Empower us because we know that today may be our last. We are the ones who see a quality of life that take many people years to find. We appreciate life. We appreciate the good days because we do not expect every day to be good. That is not a reality for us. We gave up that reality a long time ago, and that’s ok. We are explorers, lovers, and most importantly we are survivors.