This is Day 80 of the Positive 100, a countdown to Rare Disease Day 2014 and an exercise in being positive despite it all.

A friend of mine told me she never clicked links to this blog when I post them on Facebook. Not because she doesn’t like me. And not because talking about chronic illness made her uncomfortable. It was because she doesn’t think it is fair to paint a picture of sunshine and daisies when it comes to living with a chronic condition. Chronic conditions are hard. They are unfair. Living with one is certainly not all rainbows and frolicking unicorns.

This project is not about painting life in glitter and viewing it from behind rose-colored glasses. It is about accepting reality and finding a way to be positive despite the extra burdens of a chronic illness, life threatening allergies or being a woman in her twenties.

This is currently my reality. Once a week, I spend a day in an outpatient surgical clinic at Rush for a nerve block to tray and quell what we thought was a flare and what I am terrified is a permanent intensifying of the CRPS.

The rest of my reality is that I am staring my 30th birthday in the face. I am busier at work than I have ever been. I am working on projects with high visibility clients. I am writing a food blog and I spend all my spare time reading up on web trends and code-y stuff to stay one step ahead in my career. I squeeze in knitting and drawing when I can steal a minute. I am a flaky friend who forgets to call and check in a little too often. I get to eat at fancy pants restaurants and go to industry events. I travel and give talks about gluten-free baking and web design. I have friends who are all too willing to watch movie marathons and split bottles of wine.

Some days I feel like a million bucks. And others, well, I would just rather hide in my bed all day. And that’s ok.

It surely isn’t a world with pots of gold at the ends of all the rainbows, and I never want to make you think that I found the magic solution to seeing the world that way. All I can do is show you how I celebrate the good despite the bad.

How to you find positives in your reality? Share your answer on social media with the hashtag #100positivedays on Twitter, Instagram and Google+.