When I was born, I was born different. You’re probably thinking everyone is different. When I was born, I was born with a cleft palate. Most people don’t know what cleft palate is, cleft palate is when you are born with no palate on the roof of your mouth. This has affected my life in many ways.

Because of my cleft palate, people have bullied me, one kid called me upper lip kid. This brought me anxiety, and when I was younger, every night I would cry myself to sleep. I used to punch holes in the wall to deal with anger, so I have taken anger management classes. In third grade, I had massive meltdowns every day because of my brother’s friends and other people. There was a friend that helped me through all of my issues. He said, “I was teased for having a cleft palate too, and I just walked away. Look at me now, I am working at McDonald’s for $15.00 an hour!”

In my life, I have had ten surgeries beginning at five months old, and my last one was the past summer. I don’t like the way they say to me, “Say goodbye to your parents” before surgery. It seemed to me it meant I wouldn’t see them again. I still need to have more surgeries and I’m afraid. When I have surgery, I need special medicine to fall asleep and it makes me act really strangely and different. It’s not an easy process.

In the future, I will help other people that go through what I have been through. When I am seventeen, my surgeries will be done and I’d like to tell others about cleft palate and how to handle the stress. It’s hard to handle cleft palate with all the teasing, and people being mean and rude, but I’m glad I have cleft palate. You’re probably like, why exactly? Because I have had the experience.