The Boy Who Aged Backwards: What Traditional Medicine Did For Me And My Future

When I was young, I would wake up groggy and plop out of bed and make my way to the bathroom like a zombie. I would get dressed, and my mom, who we didn’t trust to drive and still don’t, would jump on her bike and ride with me to school. We would get to the school, and I’d jump off my bike, and everyone who stood close enough could hear my hips, knees, and shoulders pretty much my whole body would crack and pop. My mom would say I was like an old man. It would be decades before I realized these were warning signs.

Eventually, when I started to limp, we asked the mainstream medicine doctors about it. My mom asked what’s going on with his knees? We got some x rays and MRIs and found that the cartilage mysteriously dried up and the doctors told my parents there was nothing to be done; we’ll just have to be careful and keep an eye on it, I was around ten years old sitting in the doctor’s office feeling broken, feeling like if the experts were stumped, then there really isn’t anything I can do.

Things were mostly okay, and I only missed a few days in high school because of my knees. I felt embarrassed to bring a cane to school, so I preferred to stay home and watch some DVDs of Jacky Chan or some other action martial arts movie. I would watch and get to see what incredible things other people could do with their bodies. I remember that Jet Li had an injury when he was young. The doctors told him he would never walk or practice martial arts again. Still, he…