Living with a disability since birth provides me with a unique perspective most people don't have the opportunity to experience. I've learned that life always comes with a little bit of pain, especially watching how the opioid crisis has ravaged this country because of the way people aren't used to pain and want it eliminated without a trace. The bones in my forearms are fused so I can't turn my arms or wrists at all, and it causes significant amounts of chronic pain. I'm on pain medication which helps make each day more tolerable, but I know that there's no true healthy way to live a life with no pain, and that's okay as long as you learn how to cope and love your body when needed. Continuing in my observations as a disabled person living amongst the opioid crisis, I am also a certified pharmacy technician working a total of about 2 years at both Walmart and CVS. Working at the intersection of retail and healthcare was truly a painful place to work in. And I saw firsthand the way people with chronic pain are oftentimes treated like drug addicts by doctors, insurance companies, and pharmacies. Healthcare seems to be lacking to a major degree any sort of empathy or understanding for the reality that many of these people are more addicted to living a pain-free life, a life they're not bed-bound and restricted by. On top of my congenital disability, I've received many diagnoses in my life. From PTSD, IBS, myoclonic epilepsy, and a slew of mental health disorders there have been many ways trauma found a home in my body. Even being congenitally disabled, I've had to learn to prioritize my multiply disabled body, oftentimes going against cultural beliefs of production and value. I've learned that sometimes resting is the most important thing I can do. I've had a long journey to realize I deserve a pain free life just like non-disabled people, and that whatever accommodations I need to make that happen are more than worthy. One of the most bitter lessons I've learned with my disability is that ableism is a live and well, especially in the FDA. I've been waitlisted for life-changing surgery that would drastically modify my forearm bones to become more functional for day-to-day life. However, despite multiple applications and appeals to be considered for a clinical research surgery, the FDA denied every time stating that I've learned to live this long with my body as it is, and I'm not worth the liability if something were to go wrong. By 18 I was personally denied 4 times, and as a piano player who was slowly losing my ability to play, it broke my heart. I walked away from music altogether despite wanting to go to school for music therapy. Now at 25, I'm ready to reclaim my voice and prove to myself and anybody who will listen my body is enough, and it creates more than pain. After years of believing my body couldn't handle me pursuing music in college, I finally applied and was accepted to the Berklee College of Music. With this scholarship, I can take advantage of this incredible opportunity and show disabled survivors everywhere we are enough, pain and all. That we can live beautiful lives pursuing our passions, and that the right people will support us along the way.