How has CMT made you who you are?

[Guest guest]

A friend of mine with a very philisophical perspective on life asked me this

question yesterday. My first thought was, " what do you mean by that? It's made

me someone who has poor feeling in my feet and hands and a bit accident prone. "

Then I gave it a little more thought, because of course, that's not what she

meant. What she meant was how have my differences molded my personality?

After rolling that around a little I came up with a few things. First, it has

made me a very practical person. When I was young I really wanted to wear the

pretty high heeled shoes. It didn't take long for me to decide that that just

isn't ever going to happen. So I would say it has made me the type of person who

steps back, assesses the reality of the situation instead of the desires for

what I'd like the situation to be, and finds a way to move forward positively.

I like to think that it has made me more sensitive to the idea that no matter

how good someone else's life looks, that looks are deceiving. I don't have much

to show the outside world that I have CMT (they probably often think I'm a huge

clutz, but otherwise appear normal). The person sitting next to you who appears

to have it all probably has his/her own demons to wrestle with so I don't need

to feel bad that I'm not like them. We all have troubles.

I think it's made me a high achiever. Some subconcious need to compensate for

always being chosen last for dodge ball, maybe.

I thought I'd post these thoughts and see what thoughts they'd inspire in this

group. I'll continue to roll this one around.

Holli