2007-08-28 - 8:57 a.m.
Last Wednesday, I went to an orientation meeting for UIC. Sunday we had a cookout on our building�s back deck (it�s so cool that there even is one!), partly to mark the end of summer, partly to celebrate a milestone that Nya�s reached, and partly to send me off well to my next phase in life.
I have my first class this afternoon. Maybe starting graduate school isn�t as big a deal as starting college. But it�s kind of a big deal to me. When I first started college at 18, I wasn�t sick. When I started again at 28, I knew I had MS, but it wasn�t really apparent to others. Now it�s pretty blindingly obvious that I�m in a wheelchair.
I know using a chair isn�t that big a deal. Much of this very blog is about me realizing that being sick doesn�t mean now I�m not the same person I�ve always been. I�m still smart, still curious, still a rock�n�roll boy. There were other students (and professors) in wheelchairs at the orientation meeting.
So it really shouldn�t be much of an issue. I think maybe what I�m actually nervous about is just the going back to school thing. It�s funny; it�s only been a couple years. But it feels like forever. I feel like I�ve lived a whole lifetime here in Chicago with Nya. It�s been beautiful though. I�ve been so happy.
I need to start thinking that this is a new part of my happy life now. I�ll say it now to head off future worries: it�s gonna be alright.
Wish me luck.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
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