This is the essay I submitted to the NJ Center for Tourette Syndrome & Associated Disorders (NJCTS) for their 2016 Youth Scholarship Award contest. I hope you enjoy it!
I have had TS all my life, and it has affected me all my life, even though I may not have known what it was until more recent years. Knowing that I have Tourette Syndrome gave me a sense of identity, and a group of people to belong to. More importantly, it gave me direction and even more reason to create. I have always prided myself in being an artist, in particular a photographer. Being diagnosed with TS has given me a need to create and provide good representation for those with TS. I feel as if I need to prove to the world that I’m not some crude video on YouTube for people to laugh at, I am a remarkable human being that can create something beautiful out of anything. Having Tourette Syndrome has its good days and its bad days, and even on those bad days I can be reminded to keep on going and keep on ticking because TS makes me, me. I am the most important thing I could ever have. Tourette Syndrome showed me that while things can be uncontrollable, wild, and unpredictable, there is always a place for you to belong. TS has taught me that you have to be willing to go with the flow, and that not everything has a reason, which I believe that is one of the most valuable things you can learn going into adulthood. Accepting things as they are will always be a benefit to you, especially with something like Tourette Syndrome.
