#YOUR DAILY WORD PROMPT – Participate

https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/04/15/your-daily-word-prompt-participate-april-15-2019/

 

I don’t know what changed me. I used to be so quiet. It wasn’t hard. I’d learned to be that way. Always the outsider.

My parents fought. I always had to be the little adult. Keep secrets. Look good. Recite poetry. I had to keep the secret. Be loyal. Hold up the sinking ship.

Always moving. Place to place. Never settling. No real friends. A thousand schools. I could never PARTICIPATE. I was a loner. Not through choice, but of necessity.

Keeping the secret was hard, but it became part of me. Silence became me. I learned it well.

But something changed. Now I wear shocking pink socks. And shout loud. Now I tell all.

What changed me?   Yes, I think I do know.  Cancer.