I was born with shallow hip sockets. It is a condition known as hip dysplasia. It wasn't caught when I was little, so my hips continued to develop that way. The upshot was that I was always in pain from a very young age. I also have hypermobility which caused my shoulders and back to hurt. I distinctly remember having thoughts of wanting to die when I was six years old. I never thought about actually doing harm to myself, I just had moments when the pain was more than I knew how to handle. I hid this from everyone, thinking I just had poor coping skills for ordinary life. It never occurred to me that it wasn't normal to feel that way. The Presidential Fitness Test every child was put through was torture for me. My shoulders hurt excruciatingly from pull-ups, my back hurt from the sit-ups, and I was nearly doubled over with hip pain after running. When I said something, my teachers claimed I was just trying to get out of doing things. I was called lazy. My family called me a hy...