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"High School Student Teaches as Much as She Learns"
  by: Jackie

She’s not embarrassed to tell you – for as long as Jackie can remember, she’s had seizures. Not the kind most people know about, where you black out and fall down. Her seizures don’t look like that at all. Jackie’s first seizures, when she was 3 years old, made her stare off into space for a few seconds. By the time she was 9, her eyes would flutter, she would tremble and get a really scared feeling when she had a seizure. That was a lot harder to deal with than blanking out for a few seconds. It also gave people a reason to tease her. When Jackie started high school, people made fun of her and called her weird. But she somehow manages to go easy on people who tease her. “Changing schools can catch people off guard,” she said. “Some people just don’t understand it. If they tease me, I explain my disorder to them and then they’re learning and understanding.” Being teased wasn’t all she had to worry about in school. Because of the medication she was taking for her seizures, she used to have trouble staying awake, which sometimes made class and homework a challenge. But Jackie decided to help herself by adopting a healthy lifestyle. She eats right and tries to get lots of sleep, and that’s made things better. Jackie is 17 years old now and has been through a lot since she has grown up with seizures. That’s why its important to her to help younger children with epilepsy. She’s been a counselor at a summer camp for kids who have seizures and plans to write a children’s book about growing up with epilepsy. She even took on the role of “Winning Teen” for the Epilepsy Foundation in Rochester, N.Y. She’s had articles written about her in newspapers and magazines and has done a lot of public speaking to teach people about epilepsy. She said, “The more I can educate people about epilepsy, the better I feel.” Jackie doesn’t spend all of her time talking about epilepsy, though. She likes just spending time with her friends, running on her school’s track team and performing drama (a few years ago, she was the lead in the Nutcracker). She says she has a lot of guy friends, but isn’t looking for a boyfriend just yet. Sounds like this high school senior has plenty of other things to keep her busy.