It's been way too long. Sorry about that. Life post-graduation has kind of thrown me for a loop. But I'm back and I'll be writing more often now. So, without further ado... I recently decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month . I'm writing about, you guessed it, a young woman coming to terms with her chronic illness. The novel itself isn't coming along very quickly, but the process of writing has inspired some interesting thoughts about Crohn's and my personal process of dealing with my disease. So, I've come up with this list of the first things they should tell you when you're diagnosed. I'm not sure who "they" is. I'm not even that concerned with who it is. The idea is more about the message than the delivery. Here's what I've come up with. The first thing they should tell you... ...is that this isn't going away, your life will be different from now on. I know, that's inherent in the...