I was diagnosed with a Functional Neurological Disorder or FND at the age of 14. FND Hope International is a global charity that researches and supports people with this disorder, and defines FND as “a problem with the functioning of the nervous system and how the brain and body send and receive signals”. This looks different for everyone with the diagnosis, but for me this disorder causes a variety of episodic symptoms. Some symptoms I experience include: non-epileptic seizures, tremors, dystonia, and gait and balance disturbances. When I first began experiencing symptoms, every aspect of my life was impacted. I missed school, left orchestra and theater rehearsals early, failed to complete homework assignments, and took breaks during volleyball practices. Since then I have learned to manage my time and resources so that I can live life the way I want. I take medication to help reduce physical symptoms and regularly have appointments with my psychologists and psychiatrist to manage this disorder. To be successful at school, I have a 504 plan and have learned to advocate for myself and communicate with my teachers. I go to bed earlier than my peers to get eight to ten hours of sleep to give me the strength to get through each day. I have a limited stamina, even with more sleep; I could have given up, I could have withdrawn from school and activities because it was hard and I kept running in to the symptoms of my disability but I worked with a team and continued to learn. I learned how a team can support me in achieving my goals until I could learn to manage my disability. With the support of my parents and guidance counselor, I adjusted my course schedule so that it was more manageable for me. I needed to have less classes in person and have a course that I could take virtually at times when I could manage the workload. I regularly see a psychologist and a psychiatrist to manage my mental health and adjust medications to help reduce symptoms. I make lists of priorities and plan my days to ensure the most important items get taken care of first. I have learned so much about communication, time management, prioritizing and realistic expectations in learning to live with FND that are now my super powers as I enter the next phase of my life. Because of my disability I learned the value of support networks, the value of time management, the value of self care. My disability has made me stronger and more resilient than I could have ever imagined. One of my favorite quotes at the height of my FND journey was “One day you will tell your story of you’ve overcome what you’re going through now, and it will become part of someone else’s survival guide.” My toughest experiences have encouraged me to help make other people’s lives just a little bit less tough. I’ve always been interested in studying education, but my experiences have made me consider the possibilities of teaching emotional support or becoming a school counselor. I would love to be a part of someone’s survival guide and I hope that in my life I make a lasting impact on at least one student; that I help one teenager manage their mental health by providing resources and being a good listener.

I have long been involved in Buddy Club, Athletes Helping Athletes, and Special Olympics; my passion for developing friendships and supportive relationships with my peers with low incidence disabilities is deep seeded in who I am. I have made friendships with amazing people with a variety of disabilities, and I cannot be thankful enough for the happiness that these programs and these people have brought to my life. I am pursuing a career in special education to continue to work with students and provide opportunities for them to also develop authentic relationships with their peers and to become contributing members of their communities. They say that if you find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life, and I love spending time with children and young adults who have autism and other low-incidence disabilities. I am so excited to have a career that I will enjoy and one that can benefit so many people! My experiences as an assistant coach for an adaptive swim program have shown me how rewarding a career in special education can be. I have watched kids overcome challenges and learn to swim! In addition to learning to swim, I have helped students improve gross motor skills, communication skills, and perseverance. Brenden and Matthew are both swimmers I have worked with and both of them have Autism. They are years apart but both have limited verbal communication skills. I have learned to understand their facial expressions and gestures and have challenged them and reminded them to use their words. I hope that these communication reinforcers will stay with these gentlemen as they get older. Using visual timers, verbal countdowns, and first-then statements, I have been able to push these swimmers to stay in the pool and work for just a little bit longer to meet their swimming goals. I am proud that both of them are safe in the water now! People with Autism or low-incidence disabilities are too often sold short of their full abilities. These children should be given the tools to communicate and live life to the fullest. Academic skills are important, but more importantly, as a special education teacher, I can provide students with the skills and resources needed for being a citizen and adult. Money sense and shopping, communication skills, the ability to learn a work procedure and follow the rules at a new public place. These are all skills that can be improved upon in the classroom that will last for their entire life and allow them to be a contributing citizen. If I can be cog in the wheel to success for a student with autism or a low-incidence disabilities, I have made my impact.

Since middle school, I have been involved in Buddy Club, Athletes Helping Athletes, and Special Olympics. I have made friendships with amazing people with a variety of disabilities, and I cannot be thankful enough for the happiness that these programs and these people have brought to my life. On a rough day, I would visit the Life Skills classroom at my school and could count on teasing, joking, and smiling. I forget how much these relationships benefit these students, and I am surprised when their parents thank me. They say that if you find a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life, and I love spending time with children who have autism and low-incidence disabilities. I am so excited to have a career that I will enjoy and one that can benefit so many people! My experiences as an assistant coach for an adaptive swim program have shown me how rewarding a career in special education can be. I have watched kids overcome challenges and learn to swim! In addition to learning to swim, I have helped students improve gross motor skills, communication skills, and perseverance. Brenden and Matthew are both swimmers I have worked with and both of them have Autism. They are years apart but both have limited verbal communication skills. I have learned to understand their facial expressions and gestures and have challenged them and reminded them to use their words. I hope that these communication reinforcers will stay with these gentlemen as they get older. Using visual timers, verbal countdowns, and first-then statements, I have been able to push these swimmers to stay in the pool and work for just a little bit longer to meet their swimming goals. I am proud that both of them are safe in the water now! People with Autism or low-incidence disabilities are too often sold short of their full abilities. These children should be given the tools to communicate and live life to the fullest. Academic skills are important, but more importantly, as a special education teacher, I can provide students with the skills and resources needed for being a citizen and an adult. Money sense and shopping, communication skills, the ability to learn a work procedure and follow the rules at a new public place. These are all skills that can be improved upon in the classroom that will last for their entire life and allow them to be a contributing citizen. If I can be a cog in the wheel to success for a student with autism or a low-incidence disability, I have made my impact.

I’ve wanted to be a teacher for most of my life, but as high school started I began to question if this was the right field for me. I started to consider other fields in the social sciences, but always came back to teaching. In the summers I teach swim lessons and I absolutely love my job as a swim instructor; when the swim lessons stopped for the winter, I found that I missed my swimmers so much! Teaching made me so happy, and since I could not wait for lessons to begin again I knew that teaching was the path for me. I found that I love trying to figure out how to teach the “difficult” kids - the kids that do not listen well or are extremely nervous or can’t quite figure out how their bodies work. I enjoy teaching them and they respond well to me; being a teacher is truly who I am. As I considered what teaching certification I would pursue I could not ignore my experiences with people with disabilities. The happiness I felt after every Unified PE class and every Athletes Helping Athletes event solidified that special education is the certification for me. There are many opportunities open to me after earning a degree and certifications in K-12 special education and secondary social studies education. I am excited to not only be in a position to help support kids but also to shape the future generation. I look forward to running my own special education classroom and treating my students as the young adults they are. I did a TEDtalk in my public speaking class about having empathy for people with disabilities and not sympathy. People with disabilities should be held accountable and held to appropriate expectations. I hope to push my students to their fullest potential and celebrate their abilities. In my future school, I would love to work on increasing the inclusion of students with disabilities with their regular education peers to build relationships and help create a more accepting and loving generation. With a social studies certification, I can expose students to different cultures and religions and teach the importance of celebrating differences. As a teacher, I hope to build an environment of acceptance and inclusion in the classroom that transfers to the next generation of adults. I want to have a positive impact on my students so they can have a positive impact on the world.

I couldn’t take a deep breath. My eyes were shut tight but tears still escaped and slid down my face. I had fallen out of my chair. My head was banging against the floor. Thud. Thud. Thud. My legs trembled and shook. All eyes were on me. The teacher called the nurse and then sat next to me. She whispered encouragement as she protected my head; it was not her first experience with my FND. There are many stories just like this: the fear Mr. Simon felt when I fell over shaking in his class, the time I became immobile when decorating the christmas tree, the ambulance visit to the swim club, or when I navigated New York City with a cane. That’s just a few of the many stories I could tell about the symptoms of this disorder. After months of being told these physical symptoms were “all in my head” I received the diagnosis of Functional Neurological Disorder or FND. FND Hope International is a global charity that researches and supports people with this disorder, and defines FND as “a problem with the functioning of the nervous system and how the brain and body send and receive signals”. This looks different for everyone with the diagnosis, but for me this disorder causes a variety of episodic symptoms. Some symptoms I experience include: non-epileptic seizures, tremors, dystonia, and gait and balance disturbances. When I first began experiencing symptoms, every aspect of my life was impacted. I missed school, left orchestra and theater rehearsals early, failed to complete homework assignments, and took breaks during volleyball practices. Since then I have learned to manage my time and resources so that I can live life the way I want. I take medication to help reduce physical symptoms and regularly have appointments with my psychologists and psychiatrist to manage this disorder. To be successful at school, I have a 504 plan and have learned to advocate for myself and communicate with my teachers. I go to bed earlier than my peers to get eight to ten hours of sleep to give me the strength to get through each day. I have a limited stamina, even with more sleep, and I experienced many symptoms when I returned to full-time, in-person school after months of virtual and hybrid learning models. I could have given up, I could have withdrawn from school and activities because it was hard and I kept running in to the symptoms of my disability but I worked with a team and continued to learn. I learned how a team can support me in achieving my goals until I could learn to manage my disability. With the support of my parents and guidance counselor, I adjusted my course schedule so that it was more manageable for me. I needed to have less classes in person and have a course that I could take virtually at times when I could manage the workload. I regularly see a psychologist and a psychiatrist to manage my mental health and adjust medications to help reduce symptoms. I make lists of priorities and plan my days to ensure the most important items get taken care of first. I know my body so much better now, but I still experience symptoms. With all of these supports in place, some careful planning, and good communication I’ve been able to do well in school and participate in a number of extracurricular activities despite the unpredictability of these episodic symptoms. I am a thriving teenager thanks to the people around me that have helped me manage my disability. I have learned so much about communication, time management, prioritizing and realistic expectations in learning to live with FND that are now my super powers as I enter the next phase of my life. Because of my disability I learned the value of support networks, the value of time management, the value of self care. My disability has made me stronger and more resilient than I could have ever imagined. While I have always been empathetic and a “helper", my experience with FND has taught me a few things; When someone looks “off,” don’t point it out or ask for details because it could be uncomfortable. I often tried to hold it together and then would be upset that I didn’t look as composed as I thought. And when people would ask “what’s wrong” or “are you okay?” I felt uncomfortable or didn’t know what to say. Instead, what I really need in those moments, is a simple “you’ve got this!” It’s a way to show that you care and you’ve got their back without forcing them to engage in conversation. I also tend to ask “can I help you?” instead of “do you need help?” or “are you okay?” Maybe it’s just me, but I tend to lie when I’m asked and pretend I’m ok when I’m not, to not burden the person asking. This way it’s a simple yes or no question (open ended questions are overwhelming) and you can’t feel like a burden. One of my favorite quotes at the height of my FND journey was “One day you will tell your story of you’ve overcome what you’re going through now, and it will become part of someone else’s survival guide.” My toughest experiences have encouraged me to help make other people’s lives just a little bit less tough. I’ve always been interested in studying education, but my experiences have made me consider the possibilities of teaching emotional support or becoming a school counselor. I would love to be a part of someone’s survival guide and I hope that in my life I make a lasting impact on at least one student; that I help one teenager manage their mental health by providing resources and being a good listener.

I was diagnosed with anxiety and OCD at around the same time I was starting high school. I think I’ve had some level of anxiety my whole life, but before middle school, it was not nearly as impactful to my daily life. My experiences with daily mental health struggles and various therapists and programs have shaped my priorities, reduced my judgment of other people, and made me want to help others. As I continue with therapy and learning to manage my anxiety I imagine these experiences will continue to shape my beliefs and all aspects of my life. Like many high-achieving students, a hefty workload, completing homework and studying have always been a priority and it didn’t matter how late I stayed up or if I skipped a shower to maintain my GPA. My anxiety and perfectionism told me that this was the only way. But with the support of my therapist, my parents and a 504 plan I have been able to shift my priorities. I’ve learned that grades are not what define me and are certainly not worth sacrificing my mental health. I have learned to value self-care in a way I never did before. My personal experience with my invisible disability has taught me that I never know what’s going on inside someone's brain, so I am more empathetic to what others may be experiencing. I always assume the best in someone and I am not as quick to judge. For example, it is easy to label someone who procrastinates as lazy but what if anxiety or ADHD could be at the root of this procrastination? I have always been empathetic and a “helper”. My anxious fear of emotionally hurting someone else or guilt when I behave “wrong” in a relationship has influenced this desire to help everyone else. My experience with mental health has taught me a few things. When someone looks “off,” don’t point it out or ask for details because it could be uncomfortable. I often tried to hold it together and then would be upset that I didn’t look composed. And when people would ask “What’s wrong” or “Are you okay?” I felt uncomfortable or didn’t know what to say. Instead, what I need in those moments, is a simple “You’ve got this!” It’s a way to show that you care and you’ve got their back without forcing them to engage in conversation. I also tend to ask “Can I help you?” instead of “Do you need help?” or “Are you okay?” Maybe it’s just me, but I tend to lie when I’m asked and pretend I’m ok when I’m not, to not burden the person asking. This way it’s a simple yes or no question (open-ended questions are overwhelming) and you can’t feel like a burden. One of my favorite quotes at the height of my anxiety was “One day you will tell your story of you’ve overcome what you’re going through now, and it will become part of someone else’s survival guide.” My toughest experiences have encouraged me to help make other people’s lives just a little bit less tough. I’ve always been interested in studying education, but my experiences have made me consider the possibilities of teaching emotional support or becoming a school counselor. I would love to be a part of someone’s survival guide and I hope that in my life I make a lasting impact on at least one student; that I help one teenager manage their mental health by providing resources and being a good listener. My mental illness has not changed me. I am still a helper; I am still a high-achieving student. I am still me. But my experiences managing my anxiety and all of my therapy have influenced the little things. My priorities have shifted and I’ve changed the way I see and interact with people who might be struggling.