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Old 09-28-2006, 12:06 AM
strawdog strawdog is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 13
15 yr Member
strawdog strawdog is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 13
15 yr Member
Default Being upfront about my epilepsy

Hi folks,
Just wanted your support on this.
I'm putting in a very important scholarship application. They ask for a personal statement, and I put in a section about my epilepsy. Here's what I wrote:

"After my time at [unnamed women's community college] and the powerful lessons it taught me about gender relations, I took an extended sabbatical from school. Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 15, I graduated from high school intimately acquainted with the finer shades of consciousness. Adjusting medications at college ensured me almost complete seizure control, but personal acceptance of what some see as an "invisible disability" couldn't be fixed with a pill. So my time off was a commitment to personal exploration. During this time I went flying onto the then-burgeoning information superhighway, zipping along at 128.8kbps as I published a web site with an insider's view on epilepsy. Ten years after my diagnosis I finally learned what it had been trying to teach me the whole time: this by-now familiar and subtle difference called epilepsy, a difference which sometimes is in consciousness, sometimes in perception, does not define me. But it's still helpful, when approached with a fool's nature, as an introduction to talking about other people's definition of disability, ability, power and perception. Now I'm an ambassador of sorts, teaching a wider circle of people about epilepsy and their perceptions of difference."

(The part about "fool's nature" comes from the theme of my essay. A fool's nature is more about instinct than, say, immaturity.)

Whaddya think?
__________________
Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy for 20 years, since the age of 13.
Taking 500mg Depakote ER once a day.
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