TED Talk: Overcoming Life by Gabrielle

TED Talk: Overcoming Life by Gabrielle - July 2017 Scholarship Essay

TED talks are influential videos that are given at annual conference from experts about education, business, science, technology & creativity. When you're chosen to give a TED talk it means that you've made it, you've either created something like an invention or a new advance in medicine that can help save lives. I am only 17, I haven't created any advances in medicine but I have knowledge of what it's like to live through the challenges that life throws at you.

If I got to give a TED talk I would do it on overcoming life. I had to really grow up when I was 14. I almost lost my mother to cancer. She was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. I had to step up from being a moody middle schooler to basically being my mom. I had two younger siblings, a sister that was only 4-years-old and a brother that was 9-years-old. It was one of the hardest few months of my life. I learned that I needed to put my needs after everyone else in a time of need. Life doesn't always turn out the same way that you plan. The way that you cope with it is what helps you know how you will be able to cope with life.

This time helped me learn how to overcome life. My mom got a Stem Cell transplant and had 3 motivations the entire time she was in the hospital, me and my two siblings. This year I got diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It's a genetic condition that that makes my legs sound like Rice Krispies. Helping my mom get back on to her feet and get back to teaching LPN's and help with all me and my sibling's activities. My mom helped me to learn even when you got a rare diagnosis you can't let it be you, you are just someone who has a diagnosis, you aren't the diagnosis. Life has so many hurdles, you have to learn a way to cope and learn how to live with the troubles and not become all sad because something terrible has occurred in your life.