Gather here to chat about your day & have fun with all your Imzy friends!
What's something surprising about you or your life (that you don't mind sharing here)?
Join in on the conversation!


Gather here to chat about your day & have fun with all your Imzy friends!

Gather here to chat about your day & have fun with all your Imzy friends!
I have an M.F.A. in fiction writing (most people don't know)
I love raunchy humor (I look pretty buttoned up so they don't know)
I'm a domestic abuse survivor (a lot of people would never guess)
I have cancer (I'm real young so it's a bit of a shock but am doing well)
Two happy surprises two very sad surprises, but I'm glad you are a survivor of BOTH those last two. You are awesome! I hope you continue to kick cancer in the ass.
For the second surprise I thought you said "raunchy horror" and I was confused and trying to picture what that is... I thought of that scene from Scream where the first actress pulls off almost all her clothes while running away.
Lol! Oh yeah, that raunchy horror...
"raunchy horror" = Human Centipede, anyone? hurl
I thought this was all really funny and interesting... but then I got to the bottom two...
As a person who has lost his best friend, and only sister, to cancer, I hope your fight is one you will win. :'(
I'm winning :)
I'm sorry to hear about your own loss to this awful disease. <3
YES!! :D I don't know how to do giphy but I need some happy puppies or something to show how happy I am you're winning this fight.
Awww thank you! <3
Yes, I got super lucky. They caught it at Stage 2a and it's a slow-growing version. I don't need chemo, but required a bilateral mastectomy and lymph node removal, as well as 8 years of hormone therapy, a new treatment. The treatment should in theory starve away any stray cancer cells still left hanging about in the bloodstream.
I can grasp how lucky I was because the surgeon told me the cancer had free reign to grow in there for about 4-5 years. I had 4 tumors, but amazingly, it only spread to two tiny lymph nodes.
Which is still terrifying, but when the cancer specialist is relieved and says "You'll live a normal life," I think I believe them!!!
So it's truly a happy story :)
tbh, kind of a literal miracle!
I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, and all the stress, but man here you are at the other end all victorious.
I heard a lot of people who go through so much stress actually can turn it all around into a major positive aspect of their personality. It's something about surviving, knowing how to deal with life when it's at its worst. I kind of see that in you, that personality, online at least. Must be a tiny part of why you're so special to everyone at Imzy.
Aww <3 <3 <3
That's really kind of you to say!!!
For whatever it's worth, since it's hard to see yourself, I do think I am a much more positive and strong person now. It changed me a great deal but I think for the better, just like you say it does for some people :)
Thank you for making me feel special today! :)
Aw you deserve it :D
The only thing surprising that I can think of besides being a multi-instrumental musician is my gender identity. I'm genderfluid although I don't usually get to present properly outside the interwebs and occasional days away from home.
outerwebs!!!
Awesome! I love both your surprises.
Well thank you. :)
What instruments by the way??
I have one and a half guitars (still building the other one), three ocarinas, a ukulele, and I sing a bit.
Whoa, that's a lot. Terrific! You must be a very, very creative person to play all that.
I do my best but my creativity is more in my writing than anything. Music is an outlet for me.
Genderfluid solidarity fistbump
Many many moons ago, I worked as a scubadiver, though I can't really swim.
This sounds like a potential Wes Anderson movie! Your life could be an indie film haha. Love it.
I started working when I was 13 and dropped out of high school in my junior year.
I was also kicked out of school twice. I was a good kid aside from actually showing up to school.
I turned out pretty okay though.
That is surprising! I'm glad you turned out pretty okay. :D Also you must be pretty unique since most people these days don't take the same path you did, you probably got a lot of experiences most people have never faced before.
I took my first 2 college courses when I was 14. A note to anyone else who decides to take college courses early: DO NOT TAKE POLITICAL SCIENCE.
I did well, but it was not enjoyable for someone coming out of middle school.
That must have been rough... I picture university as being the perfect place for exactly that typical age group - 18-22ish.. (undergrad anyway). And for a middle school age kid you can't really make friends as much, you definitely can't date, you can't party or drink (I mean, hopefully they won't serve drinks to you...) ... it sounds like the only thing you can do at that age is JUST the work, and that is so different from the usual college experience.
Well, I wasn't there for any of that :).
I'm an introvert, and apparently way more mature than I should be. I was honestly surprised at how immature the people there were. They would make certain jokes, and I would just roll my eyes.
There more than a few High School students, and it was just community college. I was definitely a lot younger than most students, but I was alright.
I got along with the other people there, and didn't get into any trouble. We would talk an make jokes and all that, but sometimes I would turn away from the discussion, especially when they started talking about drugs (a big problem in my city and state) and women. I never got invited to any parties, and I think most people knew I was the reserved type.
I enjoyed it because of the work. I'm a workaholic. I love being productive. The community college life was perfect for me.
I agree with ya - the people at uni are surprisingly immature. I don't think age and maturity are always connected, for sure. It's definitely what people have been through in life, or just part of their personality.
I used to work in a nursing home and a few of them even were stuck in an immature age, even could bully other residents, geez! Glad you stayed out of that drug culture in your town.
I've spent a larger portion than I wish around terminally ill family members.
What's amazing is that it seems like the children take it better. They don't ask "Why me?" or say "I can't die yet!" They do get fussy when the medicine comes, but they don't get outraged that they are in the position they are. Perhaps it's their ignorance of the situation, but it's incredible how different children in hospitals will act.
I think I've been through quite a few things in my life that forced me to be more mature. I was raised in a very different way than most children were, and I know it has resulted in me being less into the "popular" things that the other students have fallen into.
Also, I'm younger than people assume.
When I was a lot younger (I was about 14 I think) I was pushing my little brother around the neighbourhood in his stroller. A friendly (older) lady stopped and asked me if he was mine (as in my son). I said no, he's my brother. She then asked me if I was attending college, which may have helped add to the confusion because technically I was a student at the local college, but I was also in High School, so yeah.
It was useful, although, for people to assume I am older than I am when I began taking college courses (at 14). People won't mess with you if they think your older. I was tall for my age at the time, so that probably helped.
Also, apparently I'm far more mature than I should be. When I was 14 I saw how actual adults act and I was like "What the hell is this?" But then I later found out my city has a huge drug problem, which explained a lot.
I'm a white girl with basic conversational competence (as well as reading, writing and grammar skills) in Arabic (admittedly depending heavily on the dialect).
That's a really useful skill! Nice!
It can be, for sure! Well, I think all languages are tbh but there's definitely a lot of need for Arabic specifically in my country at the moment.
!مرحبا
مرحبا! كيفك اليوم؟
احسن, و أنت؟
(.أنا لا باتكلم العربي)
:) My knowledge of Arabic is severely limited. Sorry for all the mistakes.
Aha, okay. Nice to meet you all the same :)
I'm good, thanks.
One of my favorites: the only bone I know for sure I've broken was my cheekbone. I literally "broke my face." The crappy part is that years later, I still have some nerve damage in my cheek and maxilla (I can't feel five of my teeth) and it changed the shape of my bite. Most people don't notice anything, which is fine, but it's frustrating sometimes. You don't realize how much you appreciate the symmetry of your face until it changes.
I qualified for Mensa when I was 15, but didn't join. Trying to find the time to practice and sit the exam this year...if I still qualify :/
I'm an MDSA survivor. Have never posted that publicly before, but there's a first for everything.
Wow I'm glad you feel safe here to share that - thank you for sharing. <3
<3 Thank you. Once I got away from that situation entirely (by moving cross-country...) I was able to start working on it. Only my closest friends know, and of course the rest of the family (I wasn't the only one who dealt with it), but it's interesting that strangers on the internet - as cruel as they can be sometimes - are also sometimes the easiest to confide in and talk to.
Internet interactions/connections are underrated and..unexpected sometimes. But especially here - this is a really fantastic place they've cultivated. I know I've felt more comfortable expressing myself and talking about difficult past experiences here than in rl.
Oh my gosh your poor face! That must have really hurt. Congrats on Mensa, hope you get to join if you decide to this year!
Sooo sorry about that final secret, wow, but you are a survivor and that's the important part. It can't be easy though. Thank you for sharing with us, I'm glad you feel safe enough to do that at this point in your life.
<3 Thank you! Like I mentioned in an earlier reply, strangers on the internet can be some of the best people to talk to and confide in.
Fortunately it really only hurt immediately after the injury and the first couple weeks of recovery. I was terrified of sneezing though. Took three weeks before I finally had a sneeze.
The rest of the time I was doped up on muscle relaxers and Vicodin. The break was kind of lucky in that it left a chip that kind of held the whole break in place, as it wasn't just a hairline fracture - so I didn't need surgery.
I'm in the process of recovering from Guillain-Barré syndrome. It's a post-viral condition where the immune system overreacts and starts attacking the nerves - kind of like MS, except that it's a one-time deal rather than repeatedly recurring over the course of your life. I'm doing a lot better than I was at the beginning - I can eat and dress myself without aid, and I can walk short distances and use public transport by myself - but because my nerves are still recovering, everything uses much more energy than it would have done pre-Guillain-Barré, so fatigue is a big problem for me. I have to be very careful to keep track of my energy levels and rest as soon as I start to notice signs of tiredness - and sometimes I forget how easily small things like reading an article or writing an email can add up, and end up wearing myself out. It's frustrating sometimes, and recovery is pretty slow, but I'm making my way there.
I can relate to this a bit! I've got a chronic health condition and I know how much it changes your whole life. I'm so sorry you had/have to face this, but you sound so tough. Congrats on the recovery! For those down days and for all talk of managing energy, you might like the community /spoonies if you haven't already heard of it. It's for chronic health issues, but even though you are in the process of recovery I bet you can relate to a lot of the posts and comments over there.
Thank you =) I'm already part of /spoonies - there seems to be quite a lot of similarity between my symptoms and those that people with CFS experience, so you're right that I can relate the spoonie community quite a lot. Hope you're managing things okay too.
Not really something surprising about me, more something that surprises me is how many people here actually like me and see me as a friend. I've lived most of my life with serious self image issues, thinking i was a bad person for not having any friends. So i'm surprised that everyone accepts me here... Thank you so much
Awww that's a nice and sad surprise all at once. This is a great community, right? I'm glad you found a home and friends here. No one is a bad person for not having friends IRL. It can be hard to maintain friendships and sometimes it's hard to know the right people. Sometimes you live in a small area and don't fit in with the typical crowd, or you live in a big area and get lost in the crowd. There's LOTS of reasons, and I can't think of many that involve being a bad person (... I mean unless you had a bunch of friends and murdered them all one by one... in which case plz come share your story with us at /truecrime
That turned from a friendly comment into a shameless self advertisement real quick... And i love it
Hahaha, hey it's all friendly! :D
I'm depressed, introverted, and chronically ill. I come off as someone who loves telling jokes and being silly and making puns but I'm depressed and not all that sociable because it takes a toll on me physically to go out with people and joke around.