Today was the first day of my second week at CSU Long Beach. Let me just tell you, the last week was absolutely crazy and I felt completely unprepared. I understand that moving away to college is a challenge for everyone, but throw in a wheelchair and it makes it even more difficult.
For those of you who don't know what happened to me, I have a neuro-immune disease called Transverse Myelitis. Basically that means that my immune system attacked my spinal cord, thereby causing paralysis from my neck down. Luckily for me however, some wonderful doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital Oakland worked their magic and helped me regain function in a large portion of my body. Currently I have paralysis in parts of my left leg and foot, and my left hand doesn't function very well. I would try to explain everything about my disease here, but I've already explained it about a thousand times in the last week and I'd like to save that for a future blog post, so I'll leave it at that.
Although I got sick, I didn't want my life to stop in its tracks, hence why I decided to move eight hours away from my hometown to Long Beach. Since I've been here I have had a lot of troubles- I had to deal with homesickness, I had to figure out how to get across campus, and I even rode on a terrifyingly sketchy elevator to try and get to a class. I surprisingly quickly overcame all of my obstacles. I realized it was okay to call my mom and tell her I missed her and it was okay to cry when I felt alone (I still have yet to see another person in a wheelchair in my dorms). I've also learned how to ride the campus shuttle and to laugh when the lift breaks down because at least it was an adventure, and I've figured out that Jacqueline is clearly the coolest shuttle driver. And when it came to riding that old elevator with writing on the walls that said, "if this elevator breaks down while you're inside either call this number or try shutting the gate harder" I realized that it was okay to drop a class that I am neither interested in nor have an easy time getting to.
I also had a lot of great things happen- I ended up with an amazing roommate named Maria, I made a lot of friends, I ended up getting some really cool professors, and an extremely attractive foreign guy winked at me (yes, I know that is silly, but honestly it built up my confidence a little bit). I've met the most people in the dining hall and now I even have a small group that I usually sit with for breakfast and dinner, and with my professors I've realized that them swearing makes lectures a lot more interesting. As for the cute guy who winked at me, I can't really explain that, but after a rough day it just made me feel better.
Overall, throughout the good and the bad, I've realized one important thing about college: I can do this.
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