DIY Month – Day 3: Collage

My activity last night almost didn’t happen. After walking my dog and having dinner, my boyfriend and I took my dog to the park. By the time we got back home, watched Monk and took a shower, it was time to crash. But while my boyfriend was in the shower, I saw a window of opportunity and banged out a collage.

It came out completely different than what I had planned. I printed a few pictures in black and white at the office earlier that day, and planned to make a face: One eye will be my boyfriend’s, the other will be mine, the nose will be my dog’s, and the mouth will be King Diamond’s. But when I put it all together last night, it just didn’t work out too well, so I used some of the photocopies I made of my hand, and created some kind of manual mutation that actually came out pretty freaking awesome.

I also realized that like the poem I wrote the previous night, this collage has a deeper meaning to it.

When I first found out I have Myotonic Dystrophy, I felt hopeless and weak. I felt I will never be able to do anything that requires the use of my hands. Any physical problem I had – from my inability to gain weight, to my bad posture, to my hair-loss – I blamed on my condition.

“Isn’t there some kind of treatment that can make you stop shedding so much hair?” They would ask.

“It’s a symptom of my defective genes,” I would answer. “If you have a treatment that can change my genetic makeup, lay it on me.”

But I know I’m not handicapped. There are people in my family who have it so much worse than me, they can’t even walk properly, eat properly, or even talk at all. The fact that I can write, type, draw, mold, cut, paste, and play guitar is a miracle in itself. And whenever I create something despite my condition, I feel powerful. And this is ultimately what makes my condition into something challenging and powerful, because people who don’t have it, take their fully functioning hands for granted.

But not me. Not anymore.

This whole DIY month is a challenge that I use to prove to myself that I can still create, I can still function, not like anybody else, but rather unlike anybody else. And that’s a blessing and a power.

Thus, I give you my collage “Myotonic Power.”