The Origin Story

Twenty Percenter is born from humble beginnings.

Picture it, Sicily, 1918.

Yes, I started with a Golden Girls reference and I’m not sorry. But, in all seriousness I wanted to give some background on the death and rebirth that lead to this site’s conception.

—Cut to the flashback.—

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease in Summer of 2017. Along with my diagnosis came the awareness of my new limitations. Employed at a corporation, the friends and coworkers I spent over a decade cultivating relationships with sat by and watched my slow descent into the pit of despair. They knew my former self and to be honest, they didn’t like the new me. I didn’t like the new me either — I hated her. New me was a listless, pathetic victim.

Before my diagnosis, I was a fast walker, I had places to go and things to do. Truly a woman on a mission ALL THE TIME. The clack of my heels had a nice cadence, and it was never to be broken. After diagnosis, I guess you could say I was clack-a-lackin’.

Suddenly, I was hobbling down the long, beige, seemingly never-ending hallways like an elderly woman at the ripe old age of 37. People I that once cheerfully greeted me would look at me and then turn away. It was like when you catch yourself staring at something you’re not supposed to.

Once in fine feather, my dignity was slowly plucked away.

Pain, anger, and a general ‘fuck the world’ attitude were my new way of life. And I was nailing it as the planner of the world’s most elaborate and exclusive pity party.

Change is hard. Forced change is even harder to cope with.

After another long week of still meeting deadlines and absorbing stress at the cost of my own health, I decided to have some margaritas, and by ‘some,’ I mean ‘a lot.’ I needed a break, a real break. I sat with my husband and we listened to my favorite musician until the wee hours of the night.

At this point I had been stuck for months. I knew I had to make a change and I had been asking for my purpose. Why did this happen to me? Surely everything is for a reason. Then it hit me like a bolt of lightening. I felt like I just invented the flux capacitor, but not quite as cool.

I needed to change and not just myself, but the world. I needed to change the way people like me were supported … or NOT supported, as it were.

While you may be surrounded by loving and caring friends and family, the ONLY people who truly understand what you are going through are people who have walked through the same fire and emerged alive.

You just don’t get it until you get it.

That was what I was missing. It’s not that no one cared. They just didn’t understand.

I created this site as a place to feel welcomed and understood. We are not cold and corporate, we are a community. Just like ants carrying food back to the mound — when we elect to carry the burden together, it feels so much lighter.

I hope that you experience the joy of a community and that you are fulfilled with camaraderie beyond measure. I know that together we can move forward and create a successful new chapter in life as part of the 20 Percenter tribe.

We’ve got it. And together, we’ve got this.

– HashiMo