Contracting a debilitating disease is never easy especially when you are trying to start a new chapter in your life. For me, my rare debilitating disease struck me during my first two weeks of my first semester at college. This is a difficult transition from walking for 18 years to being in a wheelchair took some time and adjustment, but my life did not stop because of it. Ultimately, the choice was up to me. Do I sit around miserable for a year while I recover or do I live my life to the fullest? I chose the second option and I have never been happier.

I knew from the beginning that this was completely out of my control and that recovery was going to take a substantial amount of time. Knowing that what is meant to be, will be, helped me cope with my current reality. I had to leave my new college to live in a hospital for two months and a lot of my friends could not visit as often as they wanted to due to their own lives. You could say I had a lot of time to myself along with time with my family. My family and coming to terms with myself and being able to accept what happened to me helped me remain extremely positive during this experience. This illness has been both a gift and a curse but I would not change anything about what has happened. The bad is out in the open, I’m now disabled when I was a strong athlete almost my entire life. The good comes in the bonds with friends and family that have became stronger, learning to let go of the bad or uncontrollable events that life throws at you and so much more.

Although I was set back in the beginning, I decided to come back to my university the second semester. My family was looking into making different arrangements for me closer to home, but I insisted on going back. I knew that the longer I stayed out of the game, the harder it would be for me to get back into it. Leading up to going back to school, I was nervous. I think anyone would be a little nervous going back to a new place alone. For me, this new transition along with being in a wheelchair made things incredibly difficult at first. I’m not even going to sit here and say it was all a walk in the park because it wasn’t. What was important was how I handled each uniquely stressful situation. Staying calm was a challenge, especially when certain situations didn’t go as planned. I tried my hardest to keep in mind that everything will work out in the end.

I was not about to have my illness stop me from living the dream as I like to say. I’m a college-aged girl, of course I still want a social life. I go out, I see my friends, I go to school, I do everything that everyone else at college should be doing. Life is too short to be concerned about what you can not do instead of just trying to find new ways to do what you want. I do everything, if not more, I did before I got sick. The only difference is that I now have a different appreciation that I never had before. I stop to smell the roses, I do things for myself, I do things to make me happy that I have never taken the time to do before. Since my illness is out-in-the-open and everyone can tell I’m sick, I have learned to be very outgoing. Now, this has helped me in so many ways. From catching the right shuttle to making friends to participating in class, my confidence in myself has helped me achieve the things I needed to and make some good memories along the way.

Life is really what you make of it. It is your reality and it is solely up to you if you want it to be a good or bad experience. Everyone faces different challenges during their lifetimes. Be kind, be empathetic, be a better person every day. Always live your life in a positive way and good things will happen. Be thankful for the good and let go of the bad. Being on this planet is an opportunity that you will never get back. Appreciate the little things, tell your family and friends you love them, be spontaneous. Everything can change in a matter of seconds.