My Blog

I always look forward to post-Christmas reunions with my maternal relatives.  Not only do we try to catch up on each other’s lives but i also get to hang out in my fave place in my cousin’s house–the kitchen.  Eversince we started the tradition of seeing each other a few days before New Year, I have always stayed in the kitchen to check on the food to be served on the table and to bond with my aunt’s "kasambahay" whom I have learned to love so dearly.  During one of the conversations I had with them, Kuya Danny, the family driver related, how, at one point, he went past our village’s guards without having to surrender his ID. Kuya Danny was to deliver my aunt’s gift to my mom.  Upon reaching the association’s gate, the guard blocked his way and asked where he was headed. Not being in the mood to surrender his precious ID, he said that needed to go to the Ocampos to bring a gift.  The guard, having been just hired a few days ago, was not familiar with the family names in our association and was just staring and waiting for Kuya Danny to say something more familiar.  Desperate, Kuya Danny thought of an ingenious way to describe where he was headed.  He chose to desribe my arm.  Making the inverted C-shape on his arm, the guard lightened up and pointed to our house.  That is where the girl with the crooked arm lives.

My arm has always been my "trademark" and never fails to gather a few glances whenever I walk by.  Resulting from an accident 11 years ago, my arm has become the major topic of conversation in reunions or in other get-togethers that I usually attend.  Some are at awe, others are bothered.  Others are just plain curious on how I get to lift heavy objects without having to break my ulna again.

Not that I am complaining.  How can I complain when people come up to me and instead of asking for my name, they ask you how me how i got my arm? (Cute guys included, hehehe.)  Instant friends, i get, that’s for sure.  How can I complain when whenever I ask favors, one glance at my arm and like Aladdin, I get top priority and all my favors are granted?  How can I complain when friends describe me in a very unusual way?  And when they do, I get instant recognition and they would be given priority as well.  And I have been a symbol of strength and courage and have been an inspiration for those who went or are undergoing certain tragedies in their life for them to come out of it with nary a scratch.  My arm has also been a very effective foot in the door with my clients. They ask what happened to my arm, they become interested, and wham, I get the purchase order.  Not all is well, however.  I feel pain emotionally when I encounter people who see me as diffently-abled.  I feel abused when they make fun of my arm as if I was born a freak.  Or when people pity me because I am just a "cute" girl na may diperensya ang kamay and they would describe just my arm and not the other positive attributes I believe I have.  Or when doctors volunteer to fix it to give me more market value knowing that I have been living a single life at 32.  (Hello, mukha ba kong isda?)  It hurts when I hear people say that I will no longer be taken seriously because of my "situation" and that I will only gather pity and not true and genuine love or when people set limits to my own movements kasi di ko pa kaya.  How dare them think of me as helpless.  Excuse me, I can still carry heavy loads with my left arm and it could still pack a mean punch when provoked.  Not to mention the physical pain when it gets hit accidentally or when the cold weather sets in and you can’t even move it. 

But when I weigh the pros and the cons of it, the pros definitely still outweigh the cons.  Sticks and stones may break my bones (no pun intended) but names will never hurt me.  They can say what they have to say about my arm.  But life is so wonderful to dwell on my crooked arm.  I have lived the past 11 years of my life as if nothing happened. I have made positive changes in my life and I am loving me all the more, crooked arm or not. Who knows, just like J. Lo’s butt, my arm would be become a major fashion statement and cosmetic surgeons will make a killing out of people who want their arms crooked as well, hahaha!

So if you see a girl with a crooked left arm and an equally crooked smile, you can’t go wrong, you have just encountered the legendary Doodle.  And don’t be afraid to say hi.  My arm doesn’t bite, you know.