During my most recent admission to an eating disorder unit, I met a nurse who taught me how to make paper cranes. What started as a crazy, intense attempt at a piece of dinosaur origami involving a 25 minute you-tube tutorial and 5 pages of instructions from a massive booklet full of weird technical terms such as blintzing, triangulation and pythagorean stretching, we decided to call it quits and stick to something a little bit easier, the classic paper crane. After a solid 3 hours of practice, we were determined to make 1000, as the legend goes, if you make 1000, you get to make one wish. Over the next 48 hours, almost every single patient and nurse was in on it, contributing what they could to the gigantic pile. One simple act had the power to bring people together in a shitty situation whilst creating something beautiful. The project kept me busy and distracted, it kept me from harming myself, it kept me calm and it kept me focused on something other than, what I like to call, “the terrible”. This nurse taught me to live in the moment, how to appreciate the little things, how to be compassionate, empathetic and understanding, that my thoughts and opinions are important, and the fact that I matter. Most importantly, she gave me hope. Hope that things will get better, that this is only temporary and the reassurance that there are always people who care. So this is for her, and every other person I’ve met along the way who has inspired me, pushed me to keep going and had faith in me. It’s a constant reminder that there is always something and someone out there. That there will always be hope.
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