‘Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful’
‘Laylor Torenz’
VA Medical Center:
Ann– We’d like to thank everyone for showing up today,
T,L: HELLO!?
Ann– I’m sorry miss, this meeting is for veterans.
T,L: Yes I know. I’m not a veteran, but I’m, um, ‘Laylor Torenz’. I have SUCH TERRIBLE ptsd and I thought that sharing my story with those with less acute cases might help them recover faster.
Ann– I’m sorry, but this IS for veterans who
T,L: I KNOW. I HEARD YOU. BUT MY PTSD IS SO, SO SO TERRIBLE. How could it NOT help these poor unfortunates.
Could you move that persons, I’m sorry I don’t know what your pronoun is, stretcher out of the way so I can sit.
Can you move the ventilator please, it’s exhaling all over me? (shiver) Thank you.
HI, I’m, um. Laylor Torenz and I have terrible ptsd.
Aren’t they supposed to say ‘HI TAYLOR’ um, ‘hi LAYLOR’ back to me?
Ann– I’m going to have to ask you to leave
T,L: I KNOW, I KNOW. I have to leave ALL MY PRECONCEPTIONS of how terrible my ptsd is and the terrible effects it’s having on my personal life OUTSIDE in the hall when I walk through the door.
(CLACK)
T,L: OHMY! Don’t you know how triggering that is? Please ask that person to hold onto their crutches a LITTLE-MORE-SECURELY?
It’s not like you’re missing BOTH your arms.
Back to MY story.
I MAY BE a world famous, oh, you might call me a ‘personality’. Yes I, OH MY GOD!
Could you PLEASE ask that person to turn to the right. They don’t have a face and I can’t think when I have to look at them.
Give me a moment.
(turns her chair).
T,L: OH! Yuck!
Why is THAT person turning blue?
What are they trying to say?
MY ptsd is terrible and I CAN STILL TALK.
CAN-I-HELP-YOU?
Joe– you
T,L: YOU…?
Joe– are (weeze)
T,L: YOU ARE…?
Joe– onmy
T,L: YOU ARE OMMY? No I’m not your MOMMY, but what can mommy do for you?
Joe– oxy…
Chuck– Damn IDIOT you’re on his oxygen line!
T,L: WHAT DID YOU SAY.
Chuck– I’m sorry ‘Laylor’, My name is Chuck, I have ptsd. You say ‘HI CHUCK’. I say, I don’t have any LEGS. Else I’d walk over and kick your BUTT off of Joes OXYGEN LINE.
T,L: Well, you’re aggressive. I MOVED. See. ‘JOE’ is not blue anymore. And I WORKED with a man named CHUCK who, I can say it now, there were so many, many, many microaggressions that it literally took weeks of therapy for me to realize how bad they were.
I couldn’t have said that last year.
AM-I-HELPING-ANY-OF-YOU-YET?
‘Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding’.
Oh. I’m sorry. I don’t have any more time. I have a selfie that has to be posted at 12, I’m very secure in my beauty.
NOW.
Before I was so harassed for my looks that I wished for so long that I wasn’t so talented AND beautiful.
I’m better now.
I hope you all learned that just because you AREN’T beautiful and have NO talent you don’t need ptsd because no one will harass you for it.
I have SOME pull in, the media, and I’ll see if we can’t do a special or something like that on people with no chances who are really okay with it?
Thank you.
I’m ‘Laylor Torenz’. Bye.
“SCREECH. SCREECH. SCREECH.”
Oops.
Didn’t I ask someone to move that ventilator? Someone should plug it back in.