That I am severely immunocompromised and give myself weekly injections (that jumpstart my bone marrow to grow white blood cells) to stay alive. The pandemic was the first time I started telling people, both out of a need to keep myself safe and out of frustration that people weren't taking it seriously. It is a completely invisible medical disability, so you'd never know unless I told you (or you worked at or near the hospital I frequent for appointments).

To the outside world, I appear to be career-driven, happy, and adventurous. The truth is that I'm not really career-driven. I've had to chase high-paying careers to afford my medical bills. I am happy and like adventure, though. However, it's hard to say how much of that is my inherent personality versus me just compensating for constantly thinking about my early demise. It's pretty easy to be satisfied with my daily life when the alternative is so much worse.