As a small child I suffered from migraines.  I would have tremendous head pain and could not move my head or open my eyes. 

My mom took to me a lot doctors and I even had my head x-rayed.  It was a strange thing to be so small and lie on a table with a huge machine moving above my head. 

It was finally decided that I was a nervous child and was given pills to calm me down.  I am not a therapist or psychiatrist so I don’t know what really caused my migraines.  The only thing I do know is that I had them and one day they just went away.

What I also know is that I never felt like I fit in, but I was always trying to fit in with everyone.  I never really spoke up for myself and would follow the herd.  I wanted desperately to be liked and be a center of attention.  But with so many cousins it was hard for me to shine because I was so damn withdrawn.

My dad was many years older than my mom and being Sicilian he wanted sons, unfortunately for him, and me and my two sisters, he had girls.  Dad told me once that “You’re girls so you are you mother’s problem”.  “If I had sons I could do things with them but I have girls”. It still makes me sad when I think about what he said. He wrote us off. We were girls and because we were girls he didn’t want to spend any time with us.