Operation Zebra

I think Operation Zebra was trying to survive inside a horse world for a while.

Constant posting.
Constant reacting.
Constant pressure to always be visible.

But Operation Zebra was never supposed to be a content machine.

It was supposed to be:
🎙️a translation project
📝a survival guide
🦓a place where invisible experiences became visible

Zebras were never meant to survive by pretending they’re horses 🦓

So this space is evolving a little.

Less noise.
More meaning.
More embodiment.
More things that last.

More books.
More guides.
More language for experiences people struggle to explain.
More resources zebras can actually live inside.

Still here.
Just building differently now 🩵

Image description in the comments for our low vision zebras 🦓

A good day in a glitter glue body is when the haunted computer only has minor glitches 🦓

😥 pain running in the background instead of crashing the whole system.
🦴 joints staying approximately where they were originally installed.
🚫 standing up without activating an unexpected error message.
🔕 the nervous system sending mild warnings instead of full system alarms.

Not pain-free…
Not cured.
Just the body software glitching a little less today.

EDS Awareness Month | A Good Day Looks Like

Image description in the comments for low vision zebras 🩵

This is what “functioning” looks like for me 🩵
(not the version people expect)

Not cured.
Not fixed.
Just… managed.

The braces.
The heat.
The compression.
The “wait, why is that doing that?”

Living in a glitter glue body means
everything works…
until it doesn’t.

And then you figure it out in real time.

Again.
And again.
And again.

Image description in the comments for low vision zebras 🦓

“Clumsy”
“Lazy”
“High maintenance”

Funny how often those words
show up when someone doesn’t understand
what it’s like to live in this body

🦴 Joints that don’t stay where they should
🔊 A nervous system on full volume
🩹 A body constantly trying to hold itself together

demure?
absolutely not 😂

Image description in the comments for low vision zebras 🦓

I didn’t “become” a zebra…
I just finally had a name for what was already happening 🦓

—

This is me then.
Figuring out how to stand.
Holding onto whatever felt stable.

This is me now.
Still figuring out how to stand.
Still adjusting. Still holding on.

—

Nothing about this is new.

The pain.
The weird injuries.
The “why does my body do that?” moments.

They’ve always been here.

What changed
was the language.

—

I didn’t grow up knowing I had EDS.

I grew up being:
“clumsy”
“dramatic”
“just anxious”
“lazy”

—

Now I know:

My body wasn’t wrong.
It was just untranslated.

—

Diagnosis didn’t create the experience.

It just made it visible.

—

So if you’re looking at your “then”
and wondering if it counts…

It does.

It always did.

—

We’re not new.
We’re just finally being named 🩵

—

Image descriptions in the comments for our low vision zebras 🦓

It’s EDS Awareness Month…
which means a lot of people are about to learn things
some of us have been surviving for years 🦓

—

You’ll see a lot of posts this month
about symptoms, tips, and definitions.

And those matter.

But this space is going to be a little different 🩵

—

I live in what I call a glitter glue body.

It holds together
until it doesn’t
and it never fully turns off.

—

So this month, I’m not just sharing information.

I’m sharing what it actually feels like
to live in a body that’s constantly adjusting
even when no one can see it.

—

We’ll be moving through this month using the awareness prompts as a guide…
but through a zebra lens.

Through lived experience 🦓
Through humor 😂
Through the messy, bendy, real parts 😮‍💨

—

If you’re new here, welcome to the herd 🦓
If you’ve been here, you already know.

We’re not just raising awareness.

We’re changing how it feels to be seen 🩵

—

Image description in the comments for our low vision zebras 🦓

Dynamic disability is like: “we’re fine”
“we’re not fine”
“we’re fine again”
all in the same hour

my body really said
let’s keep things unpredictable

still in a flare today 🩵
not dramatic
just a zebra thing 🦓

Image description in the comments for low vision zebras