Born Different
A personal story about growing up with bilateral cleft lip and palate — the surgeries, the years of rebuilding, and what it means to exist in a body the world wasn't quite ready for.
I was born with bilateral cleft lip and palate — that's when a baby's upper lip is split into two, along with the palate inside of their mouth. My childhood was spent going in and out of hospitals every single week: checkups, dental work, procedures. People with this condition need a lot of it.
I had braces for ten years. Most people have them for two or three — but when you can't really talk, can't eat well, can't do much of anything, surgery isn't optional. I had around ten surgeries before college, and two more once I got there.
A lot of my time in college was spent rebuilding — structurally. People with my condition don't naturally have a cupid's bow, so mine was medically made. The nose too, because the condition leaves you without much structure there. Even now, I still wear tape just to hold everything together.