by Sydney Henry ’20

I don’t know that I personally believe in myths and superstitions, such as if you break a mirror, you’ll have seven years of bad luck, or if you don’t hold your breath when going by a cemetery, the spirits will haunt you. However, there is one speculation that I do believe, and that is the fact that I am cursed to suffer from an odd medical affliction every single year of public school since fourth grade.  

Allow me to elaborate. I started off my early childhood education in a Montessori school, which subsequently ended after the third grade, which is when I moved over to public school. Now, some may find it a coincidence that the same year I transitioned to public school I suffered my first major injury, a broken arm, but it was only the beginning of an annual occurrence. In the fifth grade, I was out of school for a week because of a stomach bug which I don’t remember very well, but I can imagine it sucked. 

Moving onto middle school, it started out what I would consider to be fairly tame. In sixth grade, I suffered a minor concussion in May. Then in April of seventh grade, I sprained my ankle while playing badminton (I have no clue how) and had to wear a compression boot for about a month. Eighth grade is where this pattern really took a turn. I vividly remember sitting in my second period English class, and all of a sudden not being able to move because of the immense abdominal pain I was in. So after going to the nurse’s office, and then going in an ambulance to the emergency room, it turns out an ovarian cyst had ruptured. You may be thinking to yourself, that sounds like it hurts. Well you would be correct, it does. 

I’ve noticed that the older I’ve gotten, the more abnormal these ailments have become. Eighth grade was merely the kick off for more issues to come. Probably one of the most memorable experiences for me in high school was when I endured two weeks of the Varicella virus, otherwise known as Chickenpox. I honestly do not know anyone else my age who has ever experienced Chickenpox, yet somehow even after being vaccinated for it, I missed two weeks of school because of it. I missed my freshman homecoming, the end of the first quarter, and most importantly, Halloween. Although now I realize that missing those events is very minimal compared to missing the end of my senior year, I digress. 

Continuing on, you would think that it could not get worse than Chickenpox, but you would be wrong. Sophomore year was the winter of two intense strains of the flu, and guess who happened to get both, a week apart. Then in February of my junior year, I had my wisdom teeth taken out, which would be mundane if I didn’t have an adverse reaction to the anesthesia and then an infection the following week. 

Senior year, following the progression of these illnesses, has decidedly been the most prolonged and probably worst indisposition yet. Starting in February, I began losing weight and experiencing severe abdominal pain after I would eat. My parents decided to take me to the doctor and after multiple rounds of bloodwork, it turns out that I had a bacteria called H. Pylori that eats away at the inner lining of your stomach. How fun. Of course after two weeks of antibiotics and a trip to the emergency room because I could not keep any food in my stomach, it turns out this bacteria wasn’t even the cause of my problems but just a loose end. Now that I am continuing to drop weight and still experiencing all of my prior symptoms, I’m going in to have an endoscopy done and some other tests to see why this specific illness is ongoing. 

Now what’s the lesson to be learned from all of this? Well, there isn’t one. The only thing I’ve truly learned from these experiences is to make light of it and make jokes about it all because otherwise it will weigh you down. I guess that could apply to most of high school. As much as I complain and go on and on about this supposed “curse,” I actually think I’m doing the best mentally that I ever have. The current state of the world has torn away the rest of my high school experience, but I think I’ve gotten everything out of high school that I needed to understand who I am. Moving forward, my only wish is that this curse that is deciding to wreak havoc on my health takes a chill pill and leaves me alone for college. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.