I have this recurring dream: I'm a little girl, sitting with my mom, and she's singing to me. We're at the beach on an old blanket I still have tucked away in my closet. I hear the waves crashing as my mom's voice rises and falls. I feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and the comfort of her arms around me.
I want to stay in this moment forever.
When I wake up, I miss the dream. I miss the sun. I miss my mom.
I want so badly for this dream to be real, but that would be impossible because my mom died when I was six years old.
And I can't go out into the sun...like, at all. I have a rare genetic condition called xerodrema pigmentosum, aka XP, which basically means a severe sensitively to the sunlight. If sunlight so much glances off my skin, I'll get skin cancer, and my body can't repair the damage so my brain starts to fail-which could mean hearing loss, difficulty walking and swallowing, movement problems, loss of intellectual function and captivity for speech, seizures, and,yeah death.
So I spend my days indoors,hanging out with my dad(truly the best dad ever) and Twister(truly the best friend ever).
Twister and I used to pretend that I was like Rapunzel from tangeled, hidden away in my darkened tower(bedroom). We watched that movie like about a hundred times when it came out. Rapunzel finally went stir-crazy and broke out of there with some dude. Now that I'm older, I completely and totally relate,girl.
I guess if there's one one other thing I have in common with Rapunzel, it's that I'm going to have to keep the faith and keep fighting until I get my happily ever after. Mine might not be destined to last long as other people's- but that doesn't mean it will be any less awesome.