{"id":5189,"date":"2019-06-18T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/teens4ts\/?p=5189"},"modified":"2019-06-18T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T18:57:12","slug":"a-simple-task-damion-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/teens4ts\/a-simple-task-damion-s\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Task – Damion S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Damion was an honorable mention for the 2019 NJCTS Scholarship Award.<\/em><\/p>\n

This was the essay included with his application.<\/em><\/p>\n

A simple task – I just had to stand up in front of the class and give a short speech about animals to my friends. I started to twitch and blink rapidly; I could not control it no matter what I did. The teacher assumed that I was just nervous, so she allowed me to say it in the hallway. Then in second grade, I tensed up my arms repeatedly, which distracted me when I tried to focus in class. Teachers thought that I was goofing off and my family thought that I might just have a little OCD. However, the problems continued to escalate. By fifth grade, I had facial and movement ticks which accompanied the muscles tensing in addition to the bouncing of various muscles. I could not control it no matter what I did. My family finally took me to a doctor and he diagnosed me with Tourette’s Syndrome.<\/p>\n

This was a difficult time in my life, because I was struggling in school since the ticks and movements interfered with my focus. Whenever I became stressed they increased exponentially. They tried medicine for a time, but the ticks became intolerable. Therefore, I had to go to doctors to learn how to control the ticks on my own. In addition, I started to ask for more assistance in school to help increase my confidence and attention span. Throughout high school, I pushed myself to achieve past expectations. I was on the high school soccer team for all four years and also played as a member of the bowling team for two years. I ran track for one year and participated in the high school Gaming Club. In my community, I worked at the firehouse in the Junior Academy and have been employed for the past two years working as a produce clerk at Acme. I have balanced this with all of my academic progress.<\/p>\n

Today, I am a high school senior who intends to begin college in the fall for fire science. I plan to become a fireman and eventually enroll in the military. The Tourette’s diagnosis has troubled me at times, but I am determined to learn coping strategies, so that I am able to overcome it in my future endeavors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Damion was an honorable mention for the 2019 NJCTS Scholarship Award. This was the essay included with his application. A simple task – I just had to stand up in front of the class and give a short speech about… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":5211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,375,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Simple Task - Damion S. - Teens4TS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Damion was an honorable mention for the 2019 NJCTS Scholarship Award. This was the essay included with his application. 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