{"id":873,"date":"2012-06-07T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/teens4ts\/?p=873"},"modified":"2012-06-07T08:00:37","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T12:00:37","slug":"my-scholarship-essay-who-i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/njcts.org\/teens4ts\/my-scholarship-essay-who-i-am\/","title":{"rendered":"My scholarship essay: “Who I Am”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the essay I submitted to the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome for their 2012 Children\u2019s Scholars<\/em>hip Award contest. I hope you enjoy it! And here is my profile<\/a><\/strong> on the NJCTS website.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why are you doing that?<\/p>\n

Stop making that noise, it’s really annoying.<\/p>\n

What do you mean you can’t help it?<\/p>\n

Those were the words that made my heart drop to my stomach and feel sick. These words would make me go into a state of panic that the whole world was judging me. I was only 10 years old, what was I supposed to say?<\/p>\n

“Oh, sorry<\/em>, I have a neurological disorder characterized by multiple physical and vocal tics that I can’t control.”<\/p>\n

Instead, I would hang my head and just mumble, “Oh, sorry<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The comments about my Tourette Syndrome made me uncomfortable, but the names were even worse. This one boy in middle school would call me Twitchy all the time. I was so scared to walk past him in the hallway, in fear that he would call me out in front of my friends.<\/p>\n

Only a select few of them knew about my Tourette, and I intended to keep it that way. I was humiliated and ashamed that I had something about me that made me stick out. Not only that, but this specific disorder makes it hard to hide.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I came up with solutions, though:<\/p>\n