I dont know about tomorrow but today Im happy
[Applause]
today
i’d like to tell you a bit about a
serious issue
a problem that many people face that
of a chronic illness you see often when
a person is diagnosed with any serious
problem or condition
sadness follows this isn’t
really a big concern for me because as
you can see i’m a pretty happy person
even though i’ve been diagnosed with a
chronic blood condition
and to be honest i don’t know about
tomorrow
but today i’m pretty happy
the point i’m trying to convey here is
that any disorder or condition you have
shouldn’t be a barrier to your goals it
shouldn’t be some lame excuse to step
back from living a life
full of potential
i have a blood disorder called long
librarian’s disease
it’s a condition in which i’m missing
the walmart brands factor
a crucial protein that helps my blood
clot to put in simple english
i bleed a lot
almost twice as much as a normal person
and if you’re wondering no there isn’t a
cure for it
it’s something i’ll have to live with
forever
it’s pretty much a life sentence but i
don’t have to wear orange
and yet i don’t share a cell with a
bunch of convicts
people with von willebrands often get
lots of nose weeds and if not supply was
the type of medicine called humatep
their nose complete up to four hours and
since having injections
isn’t really my thing i have to take
lots of precautions
meaning i can’t play sports like hockey
soccer basketball you got the gist of it
however i can still participate in a lot
of less aggressive sports
like running cycling fencing and
badminton
as a matter of fact just this winter i
went skiing almost
every other day and though i do try to
be careful
i’m still good and there is no deny that
kids are
not the best at that even when i think
i’m careful
i get an urge to be part of my favorite
game which leads me to suffer
the utter consequences of course
it’s always quite serious i’ve been sent
from school
many times due to my own stupidity
once i got a nosebleed that lasted more
than an hour
why because i tripped on my own
shoelaces
another time i bled profusely was when i
tried to attack my friend
juan while running up the hill just as i
was about to tag him
i slipped and landed right smack on my
face
and the dam broke again in other words
my nose and lips turned into a red
niagara falls
needless to say my mother was notified
immediately i fell asleep during that 45
minute car ride to the hospital
after a while i didn’t mind the fact
that i could only taste an inhaled blood
in fact the only thing i could think of
was how they put the jelly inside their
jelly donuts
when i woke up we were at the hospital
and my lips had started bleeding
it turns out i only had a small coat on
my lips but my nose was still a bloody
faucet
i got from that blood stained car seat
and walked into the er
with my mother pinching my nose a nurse
handed me a small cardboard tray in case
there was more blood dripping
even under the fierce amount of pressure
being put on my nose
and even after i had received my shots
there was still blood going into that
tree
for up to an hour around a month after
this incident
my mother started learning how to
perform these injections
soon after i could even do it myself
now you might be thinking it’s weird a
12 year old kid who sticks needles into
himself
can’t play most sports like other kids
and makes frequent er trips
how could i still be happy especially
when i’m not really an optimist
well let me tell you what worked for me
the first thing
is to just be realistic expecting
greater things is good of course
but there are certain things that we
just can’t get up to
take 2020 for example it was one of the
worst years in human history
but if you dig deep enough on instagram
twitter or look at some reddit threads
you can find people saying that 2020 was
gonna be their
year many people learn new things
where you some just wipe their dirty
hands probably just done
binge watching seinfeld friends or even
the office
so having high hopes is great at all but
there are some things that we can just
not get up to
secondly make it work for you for me
this can be finding another sport to
play since i can’t play hockey
soccer or basketball i fence run and
play bamton
do i miss out on being part of a team
where my friends are
of course i do but i’m not about to kill
myself
every week just to try to do some layups
in a school gym
if you have limitations it’s probably a
good idea to find substitutes
for things i are vulnerable to instead
of avoiding everything
and living a really miserable life but
by far the most important thing i would
like to mention here
is to take time for yourself chill relax
listen to music play video games go to
happy hour
and how with your friends surround
yourselves with things that you enjoy
and like
this has honestly been the best stir
fruit for me
and after a long day at school or work
with assignments projects and
powerpoints it’s totally
liberating just to chill and listen to
some music
so pretty easy right be realistic find
what works for you
and take time for yourself but hey i’m
not a psychiatrist
i’m just sharing what works for me who
knows
it may work for you too so you may have
a chronic
condition like me i know it sucks
but i’m gonna live my life in a way it
sucks less
because this is life and there is so
much more to it
and if you want me to be completely
honest i know
absolutely nothing about tomorrow but
today
i’m pretty happy