Untold Stories
by Chris Burton
“Back to life…back to reality”- En Vogue (Right? Nah it was Soul II Soul.)
One of the hardest things about returning to normalcy after traumatic life events is the inevitable realization that people are rude. You can get really used to everyone being so nice to you, sympathetic and loving that you almost forget there are people who really don’t care.
The day after I was diagnosed with lupus I wanted to call everyone on my phone and let them know the good news. I called my loved ones with joy because at least we knew what we were dealing with right? Wrong. Wrong.
I hated telling folks about this because it felt like I was dropping a bomb on their lives. Here I am acting like I just got into Yale (or some other fine institution of intellectual pursuit) and people who love me are suffering.
It’s easy to make this all about yourself. Undoubtedly, whatever difficulty you are facing is difficult but I believe that it is even harder to WITNESS the suffering of your loved ones.
You may never know the full hundred.
Lupus?! A wha dat?! 
I know what you mean, even though with all my medications I feel completely fine (the pain goes away pretty quickly once they give you the right meds, hopefully you will experience the same thing), my parents are constantly worried about me, which ends up being the most painful part of the disease. Once you feel better, make sure they know it 🙂