Earth sustains life because it resides in a magical zone where the magnificent push and pull of gravity tethers Earth precisely between Venus and Mars. If Earth was closer to the Sun—everything on Earth would be aflame. If Earth was too far away from the Sun—the surface of earth would be frozen. Aptly named after The Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, the 'Goldilocks zone' is what makes life in our galaxy possible. It is no exaggeration that my body is very similar to Earth. After college, I was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition called hyperacusis. I'll admit my survival isn't at stake but in order for me to live a pain free existence, my body requires an extremely sensitive equilibrium. If you haven't heard of hyperacusis it's okay you are not alone. I also once lived a normal life up until one day my brain's noise tolerances decided to collapse at a Cheesecake Factory (as you can imagine not an ideal first date location for me now). Whar this means is that instead of losing my hearing my brain actually turned the volume sensitivity up in my head. As a result, any sounds over 45 decibels cause me pain. Anything louder than 70 decibels causes me extreme pain and I gain some other fun secondary symptoms I won't bore you with (lookup vestibular vertigo).
People like to think us folks with chronic illnesses have everything figured out but I have only had the condition for 8 months so I'm still learning what it means to live a life confined by sounds. As you can imagine my day to day life requires military level planning. Scratch that. It requires NASA level coordination. So in order for me to go on a date, even if I could have all the money in the world at my fingertips, I would really just love to have a relaxing date in my own home where I could control the sounds around me. I haven't been able to go to movie theaters in a long time so I would love to get movie theatre popcorn with lots of butter and big bags of my favorite M&M's. And obviously have wine. Lots of wine. I would invite my bestie Leyla. She has been at my side since third grade. We have been through a lot together. Her and I are so different so that probably drives me crazy sometimes but we're almost like family so it works out. Because I'm currently in a chronically stressful situation I choose to not express my feelings very often. So if given the chance I would thank her for always seeing me for me and not my illness.
#Theperfectdate
