THE FRUSTRATED EPILEPTIC.
  • Blog
  • About
  • Good Reads
  • Pearls & Ferns
  • Blog
  • About
  • Good Reads
  • Pearls & Ferns

Sickness Sucks.

3/17/2014

0 Comments

 
Sickness sucks.  Really, it does.  It’s awful and unfair and scary and…well, sucky.

But it does make us kinder.

People have been so, so kind to me through this trial.  And I’m not talking about pity, either.  I’m talking about my teenage students who are sensitive to my needs, who are quiet when I need it, who ask about my health and do what they can to help me.  I’m talking about former students of mine (and in some cases, even their parents) who have been driving me home from work (40 miles!) at least once a week.  I’m talking about coworkers who took over my supervision and detention duties for the rest of the year.  I’m talking about a sub who volunteered to cover for me one day a week for the rest of the year to ease my burden of finding rides.  I’m talking about the get well cards (some homemade!) and phone calls and flowers and signs and balloons and cakes and gifts.  I’ve been overwhelmed by generosity and kindness, and a lot of it has come from teenagers.

Sickness sucks.

But it does, strangely enough, unite us.

Since my diagnosis, people have shared their own struggles with sickness with me, and I’ve been brave enough to share mine with others as well. I reached out and shared my own story with an epileptic student at the school where I teach.  I wanted to show her that she wasn’t alone in this.  (She is literally the only other epileptic I’ve ever met—I was feeling pretty alone myself, truth be told.)  It was nice to talk to another person who understood what I was feeling, who understood my frustrations, my fears, my side effects, who couldrelate.  And later that same day, another student came to me during her lunch period and told me about her own struggle with Lyme disease, and we bonded over our aggravations about feeling betrayed by our own bodies, about losing control, about the horrors of treatments, especially ones that don’t work.

Yes, sickness sucks.  Find someone who disagrees—I dare you.

But it reminds us what we can do for each other.  It draws us out of ourselves.  It makes us less selfish.  It makes us better people.  It reminds us how short life is, how precious, how beautiful.  It has been a blessing to be the recipient of such an outpouring of grace, and I can’t wait to pay it forward.



0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Old Stuff.

    December 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories.

    All
    Epilepsy.
    Fostermomming.
    Frustrations. Ugh.
    Heartbreak.
    Lessons.
    Love.
    Projects.
    The Beautiful Things.

    RSS Feed

    Club Mid
    Scary Mommy
Scary Mommy
Contributor
Click to set custom HTML