[Don't] Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

by Kelly Jensen

I never understood what exactly about me was impossible. Perhaps it was because I was a Real Girl and not a paper doll. Perhaps it was because I was a jumbled up Rubik’s Cube of a human, all my sides and interests and passions mixed up and without order. Or perhaps it was because my mania made me sparkling, erratic, unpredictable. Mysterious. Magical. I liked the idea of being magical. It fit with the idea of being a fantasy. I liked looking at the world like it was an unfolding flower of possibility, the most amazing Instagram filter mental illness could make. I liked making people laugh, I liked surprising them with spontaneity, I liked seeing their eyes light up with delight—I liked it, I liked it, I liked it.