The Becoming Of Ms. Butterfly Genesis

There are parts of my life that people will never fully understand.

Not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t live in this body.

Cerebral palsy is not something I turn on and off. It doesn’t clock out. It doesn’t take breaks. It’s with me in the quiet moments, in the mornings when getting ready takes more energy than people realize, and in the movements that look simple to others but feel different to me.

For a long time, I didn’t know how to separate myself from it. I didn’t know where I ended and where it began.

There were years where I felt like I had to become something else—something easier to accept, something more comfortable for the world to understand. I thought if I could just be “perfect” in other ways, maybe it would balance things out. Maybe people wouldn’t notice. Maybe I wouldn’t feel different.

But the truth is, you can’t hide from a life that lives inside of you.

At some point, I had to stop trying—not in a way that meant giving up, but in a way that meant coming home to myself.

Because this life I live, this body I move in, this experience that has shaped me—it’s not something to apologize for.

It’s something to understand. Something to respect. Something to honor.

There are days that are harder than others. Days that require more patience, more energy, more grace. And there are days where I feel strong, grounded, and certain of who I am.

But every day, I am still here.

Still showing up. Still learning. Still becoming.

Cerebral palsy is a part of my story, but it is not the limit of my story.

It has taught me resilience in ways I didn’t ask for, and strength in ways I didn’t always recognize. It has forced me to slow down, to feel deeply, and to understand life from a perspective that can’t be taught.

And even though I didn’t choose this, I am choosing how I live with it.

I am choosing how I see myself.

I am choosing not to measure my worth against a world that was not built with me in mind.

Because I am not something that needs to be adjusted to fit.

I am someone who is learning how to build a life that fits me.

So today, and every day after this, I don’t just raise awareness. I don’t just explain. I don’t just exist.

I honor myself.