I teach the English Learners in 5 schools in my district.The other day, I was walking through the kindergarten hall and a boy started laughing and pointing and shouted that I looked like a boy. I have alopecia universalis and seldom cover my head.I knelt down and had a gentle but honest conversation about what would be a better way to express his interest and observations. A little girl next to him joined in and asked if I had cancer. I explained that I didn't and in five to six year old terms what alopecia is. I said, "I'm not sick. And many people with cancer get better and their hair comes back, but mine won't." I didn't think anymore about it. But a few days later, the girl's teacher thanked me for having that little conversation with her. She said her student has autism and her 2 year old brother has cancer and lost his hair.  She was having a hard time understanding what all that meant, but somehow my brief conversation helped put things right in her world and she has been fine about it all since. Sometimes I hate alopecia.  Fortunately those times are fewer and further in between.  And it is in these moments that makes me love alopecia and the person it is helping me become.