“Julia! I woke you up three times
already! You better get your a** up and ready for school, I will not tell you
again.” This is usually how my mornings
started when I was growing up. As if having your mother come into your room for
a second time was not scary enough, but after the third time you would think
the door was going to fly off the hinges. I had what I consider to be an “average”
education. When I was four years old I started pre-school at Red Door before
moving on to Kindergarten at Reinhardt. These were good times, as all
beginnings seem to be. Once I was six years old, I started the first grade at
Saucon Valley, where I attended through twelfth grade until I graduated in
2011. School was a fairly hard time for me. Luckily I had older brothers so of
course the teachers would think they were in for a real treat once they
recognized my last name. I would have teachers who assumed the worst knowing
who my brothers were, but then eventually came to love me. I was, to their
surprise, always respectful and well mannered. What they did not know is that
they would not be seeing a lot of me in class.
I grew up with my name on the
truancy list. Unfortunately, the days I could attend school for the full day
were few and far between. When I was six years old I was diagnosed with Lyme
Disease. Who knew an insect the size of your pencil tip could cause such
damage. After spending a summer hooked up to an IV and watching my siblings and
cousins running, jumping and swimming I was put into remission. I suffered from
fatigue since a very young age and would either be late to school or absent. My
attendance was horrible, but I never failed a class. Once I was through middle
school going into high school, it only got worse. By 11th grade, my
fatigue was so bad my own mother would surprise me with urine cups to see if I was
on drugs. It is not only feeling tired and drained, but a feeling of weakness.
As if your body has given up and any and all types of motivation or
encouragement have little to no effect on you. After several negative results,
she took me to my pediatrician, who also happened to be my mother’s second
cousin. He was the reason we found out I had Lyme Disease. Although I did not
have the well known “bulls-eye” where I was bitten, I did have symptoms such as
frequent vomiting, fever and fatigue. It is because of these uncommon side
effects that you can find my name in the medical books.
e is hhhhvvAfter a few months of being poked and probed I
was starting to feel like a guinea pig. Just one week before graduation, I went
for my final tests, and not the finals you are thinking of. I had to rule out
Lyme Disease as being the culprit of my everlasting symptoms. Life would be
simpler if my pre-existing disease was the reason behind years of being
physically drained, but that was not the hand god dealt me. Two days after
graduating I found out I had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. After my
mother broke the news to me I broke down crying. Not because of what she said,
but because she was sobbing uncontrollably when she told me. I will spare you
the details because I am not looking for sympathy. It took me five years and three
medications before I went back to school. Did I have many plans for after
graduating high school? Yes, but sometimes life throws you a curveball that
some people are going to deal with it better than others. I am happy to finally
be attending college. My goals are to attend for two years until I receive my associate’s
degree in business management and to graduate college with a perfect
attendance.
