Living life with a disability is hard, but living life with a disability and being a college student is even harder. You are constantly trying to find time to study, socialize, sleep, eat, go to class, and still find a way to manage all of your built up emotions surrounding the one thing that makes you different from everyone else.
I have struggled with Tourette Syndrome since I was 13 years old. After being misdiagnosed time and time again, I gave up all hope trying to find a solution to my problem. But after recently finding a medication that has started to work wonders for me, I have really come to appreciate the lessons that I've learned from being a college student with a disability.
1. Being different is nothing to be ashamed of.
Each and every person on your campus is struggling with something. Even though their struggles may differ from yours, everyone has something they are battling.
2. Find friends who appreciate each and every one of your quirks.
Or in my case, my tics. I have the best supporters when it comes to my friends. They never make me feel like an outsider, and I really learned to appreciate how inclusive they are. My tics are part of my everyday life; they are a piece of me! They don't make me any less of a person than anyone else.
3. Don't dwell on what you can't control.
This is possibly the biggest and most important lesson I've learned. Having a disability that is incurable or unable to be fixed is something that is hard to grasp at times. You want to scream and cry because you feel like no one understands your pain. But the fact of the matter is that you can't change it. Why waste your time trying to control an uncontrollable problem? Embrace your disability. Understand that, yes, you are different. But there is nothing wrong with that.
4. Be yourself in all aspects.
Never change for anyone. I know this goes past your disability, but realize that if you aren't using your disability as an advantage, you aren't being your true self. Having Tourette’s may seem like a burden most of the time, but I will never let that limit me. I am intelligent, strong, and capable of being an inspiration to anyone out there struggling with the same things as me. You are just as capable of those things. You are just as special, and you are so important to the world. Your disability makes you unique and you need to find light in that.
5. Finally, I realized that my disability does not define me.
I might embrace it. I might teach people about it. And it might be a part of me in every way, but it surely is not who I am. I am not Tourette’s. I am a college student. I am a friend. I am a daughter. I am a coworker, and I am everything in between. Living life with a disability makes me different, but it does not make me.
College is a place for learning, a place for making new friends, and a place for making new memories. But it is also your classroom. Teach your peers about your disability; educate them and let them know that you are someone who has so much to offer the world! Be uniquely you, and never let anyone tell you no just because you have something that makes you a little more special.
