63 Sisters, 2 Truths, & 1 Lie

Getting pumped for Homecoming!

 Joining a sorority was a big move for me. Being around 50-60 girls I am already beginning to think of as my family, creates strong bonds and makes for a lot of fun time spent together. For Alpha Gamma Delta (the Gams), this typically includes a lot of obnoxious unnecessary laughter and jokes. For a cataplectic, this typically includes body paralysis, usually partial but sometimes the whole big deal.

I knew I'd soon have to tell my new sisters about me; they need to know if they're going to be a part of my life through college and the rest of my future. But I hadn't quite thought of how to bring the subject up and explain to everyone at once. My Resident Assistants hadn't even been told yet, whoops... I was going to put the thought away for later when my sisters suggested as we were getting to know each other after Bid Day, that we play Two Truths and a Lie.

My grandparents' Haunted House in Mansfield, Ohio.

When my turn was up I was fully prepared. My three statements were:

1) I love raccoons.
2) My family owns and runs a haunted house.
3) I have my own show on MTV.

Of course everyone thought I lying about the last one, but I shook my head and laughed a bit, telling them how much I hate and am terrified of raccoons. Before I could even begin to explain the MTV deal, a few girls made the connection. They asked me if I slept on TV, between a few "oh-my-gods" and "no ways". And I then got to explain to nearly all of my curious new sisters at once, what narcolepsy and cataplexy are and what to do if I had an attack.

It was the easiest, painless way I've ever had to tell somebody about my narcaplexy and I'm so glad they were understanding. I really do have the best sisters a girl could ever ask for!

Narcaplexy 101: Dating in College

I've had quite the crazy first week here at college! One week of Band Camp, one week of actual classes, and the three-day weekend that Labor Day bestows upon us. In that time, I've done so much and made so many friends that it's hard to believe! My new college life is everything I'd ever hoped it to be.

While I HAVEN'T been running around off-campus housing getting ridiculously wasted from cheap alcohol and making a fool of myself like so many movies portray the average college experience to be, I HAVE made a ton of friends, been a part of some late night homework parties in the lounge, completely destroyed any resemblance of a normal healthy eating schedule that I might've had, and met a really great guy who lives in my building and definitely likes me back :)

If you know anything about the high school I went to, you'll know what I mean when I say that being in a class of 700+ freshmen is a big adjustment. My graduating class from high school? Four (4) students, including me. The campus I live on now is home to 4,000 other people my age and a bit older. You can imagine how surreal it is to me, to be able to walk to a class four blocks away from my room and not see a single familiar face. I kind of like it, really. And of course, there are lot more guys at college than there were at my high school. Guys that I live in the same building with and see every day. Any girl in this position would be excited, but a girl who graduated with only two other boys? It's more at a little-kid-in-a-candy-store level of excitement ;)

Remember that guy I wrote about in my last post? The nice guy I met in the laundry room of my building and ran into at a Weekend of Welcome dance later that night? Well right now he's eating pizza and watching Sherlock Holmes with me; our own Labor Day celebration since 2/3 of the campus has gone home until Monday.

I've spent the past week fretting about telling him about me, about my Narcaplexy and all the potentially embarrassing bits that comes with my lifetime diagnosis. How would he react to hearing that I have a constant struggle with staying awake? And what about the fact of collapsing when I experience "strong emotions"? I love laughing, any guy I'm with had to be able to make me laugh or it's just not complete for me. If we decide to make this into a relationship, thus spending a lot more time and experiences together than friends, will he be okay with having to be the one to help me when my body thinks I'm starting a dream and I collapse to the floor? Flirting alone presents a problem for me. Teasing, laughing, meeting the people in his life... The inevitable minor fighting or jealousy? Getting involved with someone creates a lot of subconscious emotions that we don't deal with everyday, and some I've probably never experienced in my life.

As an average hormonal 18-year-old girl, my muscles betray me when I so much as walk by a cute guy, let alone smiling and talking to one. What will happen with a guy that has feelings for me, feelings I return? This is all new to me; so many questions, so many answers I'll have to discover my own.

Back to my week of fretting: I was so worried of scaring him off, having him think I was a freak and deciding that the likely normal bubbly brunette he'd been dancing with the other night would be a safer bet. My friends told me not to worry, if he was as cool as I made him out to be he'd be totally accepting of me, sleep disorder and all. Just approach the subject naturally and don't make a big deal out of it. Okay, so now I had to make it as casual as a conversation about the weather or he might realize I was making a big deal of it and worry... no pressure? And all this while I had to act normal around his friends who also had no idea or they might all think I was a slurring clumsy drunk and they'd ALL avoid me. While living on a campus with 4,000 strange faces, usually coming home at night almost too tired to handle the hike upstairs to the 3rd floor. No problem, right? :S

Well I finally told him. One morning, when he came upstairs to hang out with me. I was online trying to see when True Life: I Have Narcolepsy would be on next, thinking that would be a great conversation starter. "Hey look, that's me! Yeah, the one that just fell on her face in dance class..." No such luck, so when he asked what I was up to I flat out told him what I was looking for. This began the next 10-15 minute conversation of explaining everything, and finally telling him what I'd been so scared about. He assured me not to worry, he's not so that easy to get rid of... As if I had ANY intention to! ;)

And he's sure proved to be great about it. Keeping my naps in mind and reminding me to sleep when I start to slur but have no desire to pass out for 30 minutes, watching out for my clumsiness, being cautious when he makes me laugh and stopping when I tell him to so I can regain composure. He even reminded me to take my medicine one morning when he'd noticed I hadn't! The best was when he made a disappointed comment to my roommate, Beckah, about not being able to start a tickle war with me. I laughed and promised him if he was good then I'd explain the rules of tickle wars with a cataplectic--he cheered right up!

Things truly couldn't have gone any smoother with him. I'm so glad that he's accepting and protective and mindful of my daytime sleep schedule and my limitations from cataplexy. I really feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now :)

Narcaplexy 101: College Survival

The summer has caused me to disappear, I realize this and I really do apologize about it. No internet connection other than my super slow iPhone 3 my dad gave me because I broke my awesome Galaxy phone can barely get Google to work. Anything else is just a lost cause!

Baldwin Wallace University's Class of 2016

But today as I write out this post, I'm not anywhere near the home that I've know for the past fourteen years. My residence hall at Baldwin Wallace University, North Hall, is my new home for the semester and likely the entirety of my freshman year here at college. I've got a twin bed raised up as high as the bed posts allowed so that I could fit my mini-fridge and microwave underneath. My little wooden desk is next to my bed, with a built in lamp that I ignore and used my own special lamp with a natural white-light bulb, because yellow-y light slows your brain and makes you tired. On top of my desk sits a plasma screen TV that I haven't even gotten set up yet, and once I do I still won't know what to do with it other than watch movies--I never had actual cable at home! And my closet where my dresser is shoved into is full of everything I need, from clothes and toiletries to my narcaplexy medications and my marching band uniform, safely tucked away in a yellow garment bag and waiting for that first football game in just two weeks!

And of course, my roommate has one of each of the furniture I've listed as well, right across the room from mine. Her name is Rebekah, although she goes by Becca or George, a joke from her friends back home. Becca doesn't have a TV or fridge or microwave, not that we even needed two of each, but because she traveled much farther than I did to get here. You'd know it just by her deep British accent that she's from the UK, a foreign exchange student for the semester, maybe the year if she begs her "Uni" to let her have another semester abroad. The things Becca says are fantastic! Just hearing her talk makes me smile, amused by the strange British terms that no one understands here. According to her, a shopping cart is a "trolley", chips and "crisps", cookies are "biscuits", a hoodie is a "jumper", a t-shirt is "vest"... I could make a whole dictionary of the words she says! I even think she's beginning to brush off on me: in just the short week we've been here I've started using words like "fantastic", "precisely", "begun", and "first-year" instead of the American term "freshman". But Becca is great; she's fun and easy to get along with and we agree on a lot of things. I'm fortunate to have a great roommate :)

Another thing great about Becca is her reaction to my narcaplexy explanation. She thinks narcolepsy is really interesting and cataplexy she seems to understand on a level that most people require a lengthy explanation for. And best of all, she doesn't bring it up all the time or hardly ever, really. When I need a nap she just says okay and will continue to read her book or Skype her friends or go find her other foreign exchange student friends that she's made. And the first time I "blacked out" after little sleep and a long day of Band Camp while laying on my bed talking to her and my new sophomore friend Kassie say playing with my iPad, both girls realized I've fallen asleep and when I didn't respond to their voices, they realized it was a pass out kind of deal and that I was best left alone to sleep it off. When I came to likely just minutes later after vivid dreams of being at home and having a cataplexy attack on the floor that my brother could help me out of and I couldn't get through no matter how hard I tried, they just looked at me and smiled, asking "Did you fall asleep just now?" I don't think I could've asked for much better friends to start my year out with.

The football team: Awwww Jackets!

So you've got the gist of my experience so far: I'm loving this place without a doubt in my mind :) And I already have a million and one stories to tell you of my experiences here so far, something I'll gladly delve into once I've gotten a shower! The Greeks threw a dance for the freshmen last night that went until 1am and it was really hot and sweaty dancing with the hundreds of other excited suddenly independent members of my Class of 2016. And to top that off, I didn't even get to bed until 3:30! While at the dance, I conveniently "ran into" the new friend I made in the laundry room yesterday morning, after I had been keeping my eyes peeled for him all day ;) We spent hours together dancing, playing corn hole, walking back to our residence hall together, and doing a lot of talking. Even after we got home, we were up late in the lounge playing an impromptu game of 20 Questions and Make Fun of Americans with my roommate, and I nearly physically held my eyelids open.

So he's another story, one I'd definitely LOVE to go into more detail about ;)
But like I said, I need to grab a shower first! I can hold my thoughts and words for a little longer... Then I can go write this in the lounge instead of my dorm room and maybe I'll "run into" my new friend. He doesn't have football practice until noon, after all! :)

Wakeful thoughts and a great morning to everyone!

Making Me Laugh

Ahh! I forgot to tell you the funniest part about my night! It's making my speech slur just to think about it.

Of course I had to make the announcement to my friends mid-dance that we'd gotten approval for the MTV thing. So I had a bunch of alumni students or just other kids I don't really talk to wondering why I was going to be on True Life. I had to explain my 'illness' which they actually found amusing (surprise, surprise). This resulted in everyone trying to make me laugh for the rest of the night, wanting to see me fall for some reason. I guess it's hard for those who haven't seen it to understand.

After the dance I was leaving along with the chaperones and couple kids that had yet to leave. As soon as we got outside they began to goof around and tell horribly lame jokes for my sake, and just to be safe I decided to stand in the grass instead of the concrete, and they followed. As soon as my feet hit the grass, something about the absurdity of the situation made me crack up and I fell straight down to the muddy ground. I landed on my back, unable to move, a smile frozen on my face, and the horrid urge to cover my face from them as they crowded around me, calling out that I'd faked it.

Soon I was able to move and they helped me stand up and brush off, asking over and over if I was okay. So amazingly I felt okay. The only part that embarrassed me was the no-doubtedly creepy frozen smile on my face while I was down. I think it was that these kids were so understanding and eager to understand further. Plus, they were all younger than me--my brother's age--and as long as I can remember had looked up to me, so I knew nothing that I did would make them think I was a freak.

You have to admit it, even I have, that this was pretty darn hilarious and overall an end to a pretty great night :)

What Is Cataplexy?

This morning, I got to explain to my high school class what is wrong with me. I started out with the narcolepsy, explaining why I fall asleep all the time and that it isn’t my fault. I also had to apologize for the depression and cranky attitude—again of which is not my fault. The harder one to explain was cataplexy. I tried to get them to understand what it was like for me by saying “You try it. Your doctor asks you what seems to be the problem and the only reply you have besides ‘I’m tired’ is ‘When I laugh my knees buckle’.’’ It’s not an easy thing to get across to anyone who hasn’t experienced it!I think they got it.

I had all fourteen set of student eyes and three raptly attentive teachers who listened and didn’t smirk or interrupt when they shouldn’t have. After, the principal asked the group (knowingly) if anyone else there had had to deal with a life-crippling disease. Alas, one girl had gotten Leukemia in the seventh through ninth grades. She was able to tell everyone how scary it is to have something you can’t explain when everyone else around you is hunky-dory. She also told them how important it was for her to remind her body that Leukemia wasn’t going to take over and define her, and how her friends got her through the day.

I really hope this helps them understand what’s going on with me. I’ll be like this from here on out so they can either deal with it or find a school free of narcoleptic/cataplectic people. I know for sure they won’t treat me different, just a little more careful and aware.