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Tourette’s isn’t defining me at college

Hey everyone! So I know I haven’t written a blog post or really done an update on what’s been going on with me for a few weeks now, so I figured it was time!

This is my third week of classes as a sophomore in college, and although I have been super busy with classes, friends, extracurriculars, etc., it is for sure a good type of busy and I have been enjoying these first few weeks so much!

Everything has been going really great for me. I’m enjoying all my classes, am loving my new living situation this year (since I’m living with my three closest friends in a four-person suite in which we all get singles but share a common room and a bathroom and have more of my close friends living very close to me!), and even though my tics have been hyped up because of all the excitement and activity going on, everyone around me has been super accepting and understanding as soon as I explain myself.

At Camp Twitch and Shout, I felt so comfortable and was able to just be myself. After camp, I was so upset that I had to leave that wonderful environment, but I soon realized that I had the power to make my environment in college as close to the accepting and understanding environment of camp as possible — even though I’m the only person with Tourette’s that I know of in this environment.

So it took a lot of educating, explaining and showing my friends that if I was comfortable with my Tourette’s, they could be, too, but I have finally gotten to that point which I have pretty much been aiming to get to for a long, long time, though.

I am at the point where everyone who is a part of my life at college is comfortable with my Tourette’s, knows when to ignore the tics and when to laugh with me about them, and is comfortable and able to chime in with their own comments when I feel like talking about Tourette’s or need to get something off my chest about it.

My Tourette’s is something that is out there and that people know about, but at the same time it does not define me in college.

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RuthieP

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