Something super random happened this week. I got an email from Google Domains that said they were having a sale. This resulted in me being able to get a domain for free.

A long time ago, I had a blog called Spill the Beans. It was a blog for teens and young people with chronic illness. I've been thinking of redoing it, so I searched for a domain for Spill the Beans. There wasn't one, so I started thinking about renaming it. On a whim (and due to the suggestion of my dad), I chose the name Young and Sick.

At first I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I've decided to just go with it. Last night, I got a burst of inspiration for my first two posts. And so... I'm gonna do this thing.

I'll be writing about fibromyalgia and PCOS, the two conditions I deal with, but I'm also welcoming guest posters so that I can get a multitude of perspectives. I just want this to be a community for people with chronic illness. I want people who are young and sick to not feel alone.

I'll be posting here at Further Up and Further In on Wednesdays, at The Fangirl Initiative on Thursdays, and at Young and Sick on Fridays.

Here we go.

For a long time, my identity online has not included the fact that I'm a spoonie. (As a very-related side note, please read the spoon theory. It may change your life. Thanks to the spoon theory, we chronically ill people fondly refer to ourselves as "spoonies.") Online, I will occasionally mention that I have fibromyalgia and PCOS, and it's not a secret, per se. But I haven't talked a lot about it.

The reason for this is that, honestly, the online world is my escape. Ever since I can remember, whenever I'd feel sick or lonely or crappy in any way, I would turn to the internet. There, I didn't have a faulty human body to hold me back. There, I felt free. (This is also probably why I'm a writer and why I loved to read as a kid.)

So, whenever I've tried to write about chronic illness, it's been hard. It feels like my personal space is invaded by the crappy feelings of fibromyalgia, or a headache, or whatever I'm facing that day. It's not always like that--some days, I do want to proudly claim the badge of "spoonie." But some days I want to forget I'm sick at all.