What's my Story?

My name is Macy, and I'm the writer behind Midwest Woman. I admittingly had a rough start to life and early adulthood. I use my blog as a way to spread my creativity, share my life experiences and hopefully inspire another younger adult with the world up against them! I'm twenty and live in the midwest with my four adorable fur babies and handsome partner. I was born and raised in the midwest and for the foreseeable future plan to stay here, which explains the name of my blog! There have been a few major events in my life that have pushed me to be more positive and share my experiences, some good, and some bad.

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When I was six I was diagnosed with a terminal illness called systemic scleroderma. However, in twenty-eighteen and nineteen, my diagnoses changed. Before I was facing a shortened lifespan and a lot of physical effects of the disease I believed I had for thirteen years, then suddenly it changed overnight. I have been featured in Scleroderma newsletters, at one point wrote a Facebook page about my struggles (long before finding the misdiagnoses), and spoke with other warriors fighting an incredibly difficult fight. My diagnoses changed to Ryumotoid Arthritis and Fybromyalgia, both still hard and painful diseases but not like Scleroderma. For the longest time, I felt like a fraud. I felt so guilty that I was misdiagnosed while others weren't so lucky. For the longest time, I hid from the internet ashamed to talk about my experience, but gradually I read more and more about misdiagnoses and while to this day I feel guilty, I also feel like I was given more life than I thought I had. I was so depressed about my diagnosis for so long that I felt as if I had no future. I would love to write about my misdiagnosis more in the future. You might ask, what does this have to do with your blog? 

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Well, right before my misdiagnoses my world changed forever. My mom, my best friend passed away on June thirteenth of twenty-twenty. I felt alone, empty, scared. How was I suppose to go on at nineteen without my best friend? I have healed a bit more since her loss, and through the healing process, I asked myself what have I done with my life? My mom was loved by many, a talented healthcare professional, and had the kindest heart I've ever known. What did I have to show when my time was up? Then the pieces of my at the time shattered life began being put back together. I promised myself I would do something memorable to help others even if it was just one person in need of a craft, advice, or to avoid a mistake I made. Why a blog? Because my mom pitched the idea at me a few years ago. She knew of my passion for writing and believed that I had a lot to give to the world and before I didn't believe her. So The Midwest Woman was born, out of my new lease on life, and my mother's memory.