After the announcement of my illness, my vision of life became completely different. I guess I'm not the only one in this situation. Today, I realize that the disease changed me a lot... for the better! In fact, Crohn’s made me better!

Before I got ill, I wished hard to enter in society’s mold: career, family, social life, in shape. Well, I kind of wanted to be a superwoman for whom everything succeeds and who projects the perfect image put forward by the society.

Very quickly, I understood that by being sick, I no longer met the criteria. I also realized that our society seemed to want everyone to be perfect to be supposedly happy. That society which judges people when they don’t respect its criteria, which rarely tries to understand all the circumstances of a situation and which advocates more appearances than just being. Actually, it didn’t make me happy at all to realise all of this.

Even if it can be harder sometimes, I avoid judging a situation without completely understanding it. I always try to put myself in the place of others, to comprehend them and, above all, to respect them. Everyone has their own vision of life and there is no reason to diminish others for their opinions. Now, I listen. I try to listen to myself, my heart and my head, I try to listen to my body which sometimes tells me to take a break and, more particularly, I try to be imperfect with my imperfect body!

Life is too short to not pay attention to each other, love each other and enjoy it. Now that Georges, my ostomy, has given me a second chance at life, I intend to live it to the fullest and to make my dreams as well as my wildest projects come true!

Cheers to life!

Joannie

Brought to you by: Coloplast