Greetings, fellow poets and/or poets-to-be! Due to time constraints (i.e. Needing to share my introductory post within the next 20 minutes before the marathon officially starts)! I’ve essentially copied/pasted my profile bio here, as I think I wrote too much in it for a short summary bio, anyway.
Without further ado, here’s the introduction to, well…me.
Hey, I’m Becca. I currently am 27 and have been bedridden bedridden with chronic Lyme disease and multiple coinfections. This poetry marathon is a major challenge for me, and I’m determined to finish (the half-marathon) to prove to myself I can. And I refuse to let the enemy win this battle because I know God is going to deliver me from these illnesses, and He knows that writing is healing for me, so I’m counting on HIS strength to get me through each hour of this marathon.
Before my body crashed three and a half years ago and left me in bed except to go to the doctor, I attended Centre College in Kentucky, majoring in English and getting a minor in creative writing. Writing has been my biggest passion for as long as I can remember; at age 4 I was talking about writing a book. In college, and after enduring many life experiences that lended me a chance to truly dive deep into my poetry (I had written poems even as a child, but in middle and high school, and then even more in college, poetry became my go-to if I needed to explore my feelings, vent, or just chronicle my day or something positive or negative that had happened.
Currently, I’m im the process of working on a project titled, “Made From My Bed Mixtape: It’s Not Optional” – Yes, I rap in addition to writing poems, because to me, rap is just poetry put to music. There’s currently no release date for this project, because I can’t commit to a deadline, but in essence, it will be a CHH (Christian Hip-Hop/Rap) album, made by a chronic illness fighter, right from her own bed, FOR other chronic illness fighters, all the while tackling the issues that come with that physically, mentally, emotionally, and of course, spiritually.
I’ve also got a website dedicated to my journey with chronic Lyme, and it has a poetry section where I’ve shared some of my past work. If you’re interested in checking that out, you can do so at www.lymeislame.com.
I’m also a major geek, when it comes to words and language, and in general. Give me a comic book, a game boy with Pokémon loaded inside, turn on Doctor Who, pass me my Captain America hat and my Walden Pond book cover printed shirt and we will be good to go!😊 Outside of writing, I am also extremely passionate about figure skating and, as cliché as it sounds, I am Michelle Kwan’s biggest fan…just trust me on this, I’m more than a little embarrassed of some of the extents my younger self went to just to try to contact her in any way/meet her/share things with her/just see her on TV. Boxes on boxes of VHS tapes of competitions are currently in our basement. (I live with my wonderfully selfless husband, Roger, and our copper-nosed beautiful brown eyed beagle, and we have two cats, but between everyone who reads this and me, please don’t take offense, but I didn’t choose the cats, they were already here-two of them-when I chose the man. Col(C)atteral damage, I guess you could say. But while I’m a major dog person and not so big on felines, I’m an animal lover in general, so they’re here to stay and I wouldn’t take them away from my husband for anything.
Happy to be here and excited to try my best to fulfill this every hour commitment for 12 hours…I’d do the 24-hour marathon easily, because Lyme causes intense insomnia, zero-sleep nights, but my husband’s birthday is tomorrow (8/14) so I have to at least attempt sleep tonight because I’m determined to make it a good day for him tomorrow. 🙂
(If you want to connect on social media, you can find me online on Instagram at grammaticallyso and on Twitter at both @grammaticallyso and @lymeislame.)
Cheers and God bless!