"Eighteen"
  by: KTbayBee

Have you ever been sitting in class and just totally spaced out? I have! That explains my whole school career. My story starts from August 9th 2002, and goes backward. My senior year was coming up and I was so excited. The only thing was, I knew it was going to be even harder than ANY of the years before. I had told my mom numerous times that I thought there was something wrong with me. I kept randomly spacing out. In class, with friends, in front of teachers, it was just a bad feeling. It's like everyone thought I was dumb or something. Finally my mom took me to the doctor, my doctor told me that I needed to go in for an EEG. They thought I might have Epilepsy. For that whole time before the EEG I kept denying it. "It can't happen to me, I'm a normal teenager!" Life had basically gone down the pooper. They got the EEG back and told me that I had Absence Seizures. I don't really remember how I reacted, but I know I was upset. Tracing things back to see where I got this was just as impossible as me trying to complete a whole thought without a blank. Teachers from fourth grade until freshman year of high school had tested me to see if I had a learning diablility. No one caught anything; I had been tested seven times and nothing was found! Nothing else caused it, my doctor told me that there is no logical reason I should have this. It just is out of the blue! After being eighteen and recently being diagnosed with Epilepsy, it's kinda hard to readjust your life. You don't know exactly how to tell friends, family, or even teachers. You have to take everything as it's dealt to you. These last six months in my life have been nerve-racking, but at the same time some of the greatest in my life. For my senior research paper I wrote an essay on "High School Teens and Focusing." For the first time ever, I got an A on the paper. The teacher loved it and is letting all my teachers read it, she even told me to give the principal a copy. Wow. After EIGHTEEN years of struggle, my life is finally coming together, even if it did take learning that I am an Epileptic!