India, April 4 -- My sister and I are from Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America. We often get lumped in with the Caribbean because the language and culture matches more than South American. As kids, we moved to the neighboring, Dutch-speaking country Suriname, and then I moved to New York for college.

My sister, Annie, is two years younger than me and was born with cerebral palsy. She can't control all of her muscles, causing spams, which affects her speech as well. She had outgrown her medical care, so she moved [to NYC], too, about a year and a half after I did.

I also have non-apparent disabilities. I live with chronic pain, vertigo, and early onsets of hearing loss. Since my vertigo is episodic, in the warmer m...