I would like others to treat people with epilepsy the same as any other person like if they didn’t have the diagnosis of epilepsy. I think that it isn’t right that others make fun of people with epilepsy just because they are different. At Kamp Kaleidoscope, you can be yourself all week long and I don’t think that anyone will come up to you and say something mean. I have an invisible disability so that means you won’t be able to come up to me and say, “Hey, look she is disabled.” You should never treat anyone poorly just because they are different.
I think that the big lesson is that stress is all around us, it can cause seizures, and we can’t avoid it. I wish that I could try to escape from my anxiety but, it’s an everyday struggle. I think that I have anxiety at least twice a day maybe even more and it sucks. The way that I take care of it is by trying to use my coping skills. One of my anxiety triggers is school and I can’t avoid it because it’s my senior year and I can’t wait to graduate. Plus, I need to get an education so I can get a job that I love.
I go to Transition one Saturday every month to talk about how Epilepsy can affect my life and how I can get help as well as others around me. I went to Studio-E Teen for the first time last year. It was awesome. This year since I was 18 years old I got to go to both Studio-E Teen/Adult. For the past 3 years I have gone to Kamp Kaleidoscope with my friend but this year I thought that I couldn’t go because I have bad headaches and it’s all the way in Dallas and if I got a headache I wouldn’t be able to go home. I felt sad and I thought that I made a mistake but I made the right decision. I felt sad that I didn’t get to hang out with my friend during her last year as a camper at Kamp Kaleidoscope. Even though we might not be able to see each other for a few years we can still stay in contact. At Transition, Studio-E Teen/Adult, and Kamp Kaleidoscope I got to make some new friends and learn how to deal with the stress of epilepsy.
