Over the summer at the Arthritis conference I sat through an advocacy session. In that session they told us about ways in which we can bring attention to arthritis by using social media in order to get our state politician's attention.
They told us that we could only have one sentence.
140 characters.
Why 140 characters you ask?
Well, because twitter and other social media sites only allow 140 characters and when you're chasing down the politicians, you have to have a hook in order to get them.
A one sentence hook.
In my field we are supposed to practice our elevator speeches for conferences. For that, we at least get one minute.
You know how many words I can say in one minute?
Way more than 140 characters.
So you see my dilemma when thinking about my one sentence.
I have so much to say about my arthritis. I have a story that is worth more than one sentence.
Heck! I have a blog dedicated to it!
How can I put all of that, all of my pain, my experiences, my life....into one sentence.
It deserves more than that.
And I see their point. I know that once you hook the reader, then you can dive straight into the abyss. But how do you put everything into 140 characters?
It seems so insignificant to me.
I'm not insignificant.
My story isn't insignificant, at least to me.
One girl said that her one sentence was "I take over 22 pills a day just to be able to move"
One boy said "I pay over 1200 dollars a month for one shot and that's not the amount insurance covers"
Think about how insanely courageous their stories are just from those 140 characters.
So I started thinking about what my one sentence could be.
"The kids I've worked with at camps have experienced more pain in their 8 years than you will experience in your entire lifetime"
"I wake up not knowing if i'm going to be able to walk on a day to day basis, how do you spend your mornings?"
"I'm allergic to nearly every single biologic out there on the market that is used to treat my disease"
"I know that I need a great job with insurance benefits because insurance companies won't take me alone due to my pre-existing condition"
"I chose to go into a career that will help those like me due to the limited resources provided for those who have disabilities"
It's a work in progress, really. It's not something I'm good at, but if advocating like this for arthritis will bring attention, funding, and awareness to it....then I'm going to try my hardest.
Everyone lives with the idea of leaving something behind. Leaving a mark on this world in one way or another. What's your hook?
I challenge you to think of 140 characters that will bring awareness to something, anything of your choosing.
So what's your one sentence?
Just make it a good one.
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