The Next Wave

Everyone says how the high school years are some of the most important years of our lives. How it will shape us into who we are, or how important it is during these years to focus on our future. Now think back to when you were starting high school as an itty-bitty freshman. How did you feel about heading into high school? I know for me I was excited, nervous, and a little stressed. Which was normal right? But unfortunately, my “normal” was a little different than my peers.

Heading into freshman year, besides the normal feelings of excitement and nervousness, I was feeling great! I had worked on my health during the months leading up to the new school year. I felt confident that I would have a successful school year academically. On the basketball side of it, I was just happy to play no matter how long it was. To sum up my freshman year I was able to make it to my classes, only occasionally missing a few, and basketball was a little different than what I was used to. I was used to being able to play full games and if I got knocked down, I’d just get up. However, playing with Fibromyalgia made it difficult, because if I got injured, it would be the end of my season.

Now sophomore year is where all heck breaks loose! My family moved so I was starting at a new school, and was very excited about it. But that all came to an abrupt end. Two weeks into 11^th grade I was experiencing new symptoms that made me miss about a full week of school. Now this part of the story is rather long so I’ll just cut to the chase. Basically, I had a meeting with my teachers and the Principal regarding my absences. They knew about the Fibromyalgia and I had a 504 in place. (A 504 plan is a plan that’s set up for those with disabilities who are attending school. That way when they are going through a rough patch, they will already have accommodations set up that the school knows about.) What my family and I wanted was to be accommodated and do a half schedule, so that way I can do some classes online and at school, but I could still have the high school experience. Unfortunately, the school wouldn’t do it, so I had no other choice but to go online. I was devastated, sad, and also pretty mad at the school!  It was this event that really changed my whole high school experience. But all that I’ll say is that blessings come in all forms and when you least expect them. During all the school drama, I was trying to get in to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Which took priority over trying to work things out with the school, because my health was far more important. My mom wrote a letter to Mayo Clinic about me as a last-ditch effort because the next available appointment was months away. It was a huge blessing when we heard back that we could be seen in a month.

WOW THE MAYO CLINIC IS TRULY AMAZING. I was there for 4 days and had about 18 different appointments. I was so shocked and in awe of how the Mayo Clinic works. After those 4 days, the lead doctor had some news for us. She told me I had Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or POTS for short. With my new diagnosis I left the Mayo Clinic feeling ready to take this new challenge on. But don’t get me wrong, I still wasn’t feeling very good and I was worried and concerned about my future. However, dealing with Fibromyalgia helped prepare me to understand how important it is to use the tools that my doctors give me, and how to be mentally prepared for both good and bad days.

Jumping into junior year, I was still doing online and not well enough to make it to school. But after much thinking, I realized that this could just be how I’m going to feel. I can’t go my whole life missing out on opportunities because of my health. Life’s not meant to be easy, so I might as well do the best I can to enjoy it. With my parents help, we looked into high schools near me that would accommodate me. The only school that would take me was the school I NEVER wanted to go to. But I was so desperate and longing to have a “normal” high school experience, that I decided to enroll. I attended this school for the last bit of my junior year and although it was a short time, I still managed to participate in some fun activities. I took Ballroom dancing, an equine class, made the basketball team, went to football games, and even felt well enough to go to a school dance! (With a cute guy may I add, wink, wink.) I realized how grateful I was that this school was willing to accommodate me and let me take some online classes.

Now to Senior year, oh what a crazy, interesting, fun year it was. This was the year that everything came full circle. Since I had to take online school for two years, I was able to get ahead, which made it so I only had 4 classes my senior year. I was taking full advantage of being able to actually be at school again. That being said I tried out for one of the Ballroom teams and actually made it. When basketball season came around, I was ready and excited to get to play at all. And this is when “I get to and I am” really came into play. No matter how much I play or how well I play, I get to. Long story short all the things that I couldn’t do in the past, I was able to do. The most ironic thing is when I was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, I was very weak and when I’d go out to shoot, I couldn’t even make it to the basket. So, when 3 pointers were my main way of scoring senior year, it truly felt like things came full circle. Basketball wasn’t the only thing that came full circle. The fact that I was at school again, participating in fun activities, even was asked to Senior prom by my best guy friend (not to mention in the cutest way possible), and graduating high school, I couldn’t have asked for more. My last year of high school was packed full of all the things I had missed out on and after everything, I was able to have a normal high school experience after all.

Now that you know my back story, I’m not really planning on talking about myself as much. My hope with this blog is to share others stories and uplifting messages that can help us all out. We all experience hard things and being able to have a place to feel safe and free to talk about them, can really help. Also, sorry about the really long posts, I’m also planning on keeping them much shorter. Once again thank you so much for reading this and you can reach me at IgettoandIam@gmail.com or @igettoandiam on Instagram.