Schwannomatosis and My Friend Kathy

My friend Kathy is an inspiring fashion designer with hopes and dreams of one day being able to make life easier for individuals with physical limitations. Kathy has chosen this career path because she knows first hand how difficult it can be to perform an everyday task due to a physical limitation. Unlike me, Kathy was not diagnosed with  NF until she was in her late teens; nonetheless, she has been victorious through over a dozen surgeries and painstaking physical rehabilitation.

Through it, all, Schwannonatosis, has left Kathy paralyzed. She would like your help with obtaining a safe wheelchair accessible vehicle. You see, Kathy goes to and from the art studio in public transportation; I know how frustrating it is to have to count on public transportation and how unreliable it could be. Living with pain is already an everyday battle, being able to travel in a wheelchair accessible car makes a living with  NF a lot more bearable.

Please help my friend Kathy accomplish her goal as a fashion designer for  her to make life easier for those with physical limitations.

Check out Kathy's Go Fund Me page and learn more about this amazing woman!!

A Face for NF

 Created with Imgflip by Angela.
 FYI, Joe made me watch this stupid show.

Joe and I began talking because he remembered my face from high school. He saw me once in the lunchroom at King High School, and that is all it took. Ten years later he saw me again in our Classical Theory class in USF. Joe says that I have a memorable face because everything about me is pretty, but I find it hard to believe because I have had much more encounters of that sort that lead to nothing more than awkwardness.

A few years before meeting Joe, I was walking into yet another class at USF when one of my brother's childhood friends saw me standing in the middle of an auditorium filled with students. He walked to me and said, " Hi, do you remember me? Juan? You're Andres' little sister." It took me a minute to recognize his face because last time I saw him, I was still in grade school.

Unfortunately, not every experience on behalf of my appearance has been as positive. In fact, Joe and Juan are pretty much the only encounters that have been positive. On more than once occasion random people have approached me to say something along the lines of; hey, don't I know you from somewhere? You look so familiar. Didn't we take a class together? Giving the person some benefit of the doubt I would inquire about their major or electives. By the end of the two-minute conversation, the only thing we had in common was that we attended the same university. More often than not the person would just stare at me for a couple of seconds as if they were still trying to figure it out and walk away

You may think that I am looking too much into situations where people approach when they are in fact genuine, but I assure that I am not. Yes, people have approached me with the same curiosity that has been correct, but those are too far in between. Besides, in those instances, the person tells me the class we took together or the name of the professor.

It's not that people cannot approach me in such a matter, it's that after almost 29 years I have become suspicious of people that randomly approach me to say hi. What is it? Do I just look so familiar that you must talk to me? Whatever the case maybe, positive or not I will all ways look at the person that approaches me with doubt in the back of my mind.