The story of Nayeli
A challenge that I have been faced with is living with a rare disease called Cowden Syndrome. What this means is that I was born with a genetic condition in which non-cancerous growths, called hamartomas, develop in different areas of the body. Along with my other medical digonics like asthma and dyslexia I’ve never tried to let my disease get the best of me but there are some cases where I simply don’t win. Having a disease is no different from living a normal life except there is always a doctor we have to visit or a new medicine we could try and sometimes it gets very overwhelming and my academic achievements will fail because of it. My academics would fail because I would normally be out of school for doctor visit especially when I was younger that I would normally have a lot to make up on and it would be very difficult to keep up, times would get even worse when I would have to go in for a surgery or procedure and would miss weeks at a time. My academics would at this point normally start to fail because missing so much school would make me very behind and along with a learning disability I often learned slower then most my classmates so I ended up in my special education teachers office everyday till I made up all my work but I also never gave up I worked hard to get my grades no matter how much school I would miss even as a high school student I continue to work hard to get the grade I know I can get. My disease did at times though it would really take a toll on my family’s mental health as well as my own because it was always like there was something new we had to worry about and sometimes when you think too far into things you could only think the worst. Growing up I use to hate going to the doctors because it would always be another thing after the other to worry about but now that i’m older you could even say I would consider the doctor’s office my second home, every doctor I see has been seeing me since I was a newborn i’ve grown up with a family of doctors that sometimes only grew more and more. My disease has also affected my appearance because I was born with a slightly larger head than most. The reason behind this being the fact water was in my head so growing up I was often bullied through elementary and middle school. The bullying got so bad I often hated my appearance to the point where I no longer wanted to go to school because I always thought I was cursed with ugly looks and my disease was at fault. Some different ways I would overcome these challenges would be to first have a growth mindset, even at the toughest times I would always smile through them and think everything would be okay even if I knew deep down that I was a nervous wreck I learned this from my mother she is my number one supporter when it comes to my medical history and academic history. My mother was the one holding my hand through every needle, surgery and important doctor visit and for her I will be forever grateful my mother is the woman who thought to be who I am today. I also made sure that I asked for help even though I never liked to. I asked my teachers and my friends for help to catch up on my work. Another important way I learned to overcome my challenges was to know that my disease my learning disability or my appearance does not define who I am today I know that i am a kind hearted person and if I were to put my mind to something I can overcome whatever challenges come my way now as a highschool student I manage to keep a 4.5 gpa and took honor classes, My disease does not define me.