Aaliyah Arrington

Ingram
July 2, 2015
The Chronic Years
My high school writing journey was not as adventurous as my middle school teachers
projected it to be. They painted it a horrid picture, sleepless nights of pure hellish writing
and reading assignments, ruthless teachers with no remorse plus a schedule so rigorous
that we were bound to fail.
When I entered Wallace-Rose Hill High School as a freshman, I expected all of those
stories to be true, not only about the crazy assignments but also about rumors that all middleschoolers hear; the upperclassmen squish your poor bodies inside of lockers, the boys are forced
to do everything the older guys want them to, and of course the seniors were all looking for a
piece of freshmen females. Coming in with a mindset that I was going to take on anything
that came my way helped me get through it all. English had always been my favorite subject
mainly because I loved to read, but writing on the other had was not something Id enjoyed.
Freshman year was not bad at all. I had an amazingly cool English teacher who expressed
herself as is. We did little assignments like writing about the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird,
and Mythology English class was a breeze. I had the honors courses that tried to challenge me,
but I was on a roll and nothing could stop me from doing my best, or so I thought.

The most life changing event occurred in the tenth grade. Who knew this would happen
to me. Always happy, always energetic, always having fun until that day. Sophomore year
itself had been presented as pure hell and this was the unexpected.
It was a normal day, a Saturday to be exact. I was getting ready to go to bed when it
started. The ground felt as if it was shifting from under me and I became dizzy and saw spots
appear in the air. What in the heck is going on? I need some water were my last memorable
thoughts. Then I blacked out, right on my bedroom floor.
I blinked my eyes open; all white Oh TRACY! She is awake! I heard someone yell.
I opened my eyes again and saw my mom rush over. I was in a hospital room. My mother
grabbed my hand saying Baby, hey how you feelin? and a tear rolled down her cheek. I
attempted to talk but I realized that there was an oxygen mask covering my mouth and nose. The
nurse came over quickly to check my vitals and my oxygen levels. I laid there confused and
slightly terrified. Who would not? I am somewhere I do not expect to be and the last things I
recall are not too sweet. Mommy, what happened I whispered. She brought her face closer to
mine and simply said I do not know baby, you blacked out she retorted. My mom continued
to tell me how my little sister found me on the floor completely out of it. They rushed me to the
hospital where I was out for a few hours. No one knew exactly what was wrong with me at the
moment, but it was something serious and shocking. I asked my nurse if I was dying, and she
asked me to tell her my level of pain on a scale from 1-10. 8 I muttered. I was in a lot of pain
but I did not want some life altering drugs to enter my body.
I stayed in the hospital for a night so they could observe me. I had this throbbing pain in
my head the entire time I was in the hospital and it stayed for an entire week, I was hospitalized
once again after experiencing excruciating pains in my head. My doctor told me that I was

having migraines and prescribed me six different medicines all with insane side effects. One
medication I took on a daily called Amitriptyline, caused me to sleep so deeply; I overslept for
school on several occasions and even then it was not making it as better as they projected.
Another one named Imitrex had me sitting on cloud ten at every dose. This being my sophomore
year, I was expecting to have a great time, join a varsity cheer team, run for class president
most, well all of that was suddenly out of the question. My friends tried their best to be there.
They took notes for me in class, helped with assignments that I missed and were around me to
keep a smile on my face when I felt down. I was on restrictions because of my blackouts so I was
basically a prisoner in my household until they could get to the bottom of things. My mom was
going wild taking me to different specialists just to have my medical bill pile up and for them to
give false diagnoses. I have been told that I have lupus twice, that it is just sinus issues; that my
cerebral vertex is torn, and I have chronic migraine syndrome which is the most fitting and
logical at this point. At the same time. my mom was going thru her own medical issues - there
was a tumor found on the base of her cerebral vertex and caused ultra pain. She postponed her
own health to get mine in order.
After missing a total of 50 days my tenth grade year out of 180, I honestly felt like
giving up. In class it was hard to concentrate because I was almost always doped up on some
type of medication. I was almost going to be homeschooled until a doctor who was not even a
specialist in neurology came and had a talk with me one day while I was admitted into the
hospital. She said a prayer over me and spoke He will never give you any burden that you
cannot carry, just trust in the Lord and everything will be just fine honey. And like that, I
was determined to make it no matter what pain I was enduring I was going to live my life the
way I wanted and just take what was given to me.

I took heed to what she said and tried to make the last two years of my high school career
count. I wanted to try to overcome all the adversity that I was facing and have a normal junior
and senior year. I had to take control of my life again and not let this take away from who I am. I
needed to get my education in order and i felt like this was no excuse as to why it could not be
my best. In addition to that the void i needed to fill with extra curricular activities was finally
filled, since all of my friends were athletes and the fact that I could not participate in sports really
hurt me. But I was able to act as a manager for the cheer team and got a chance to be with them
and also had a senior night during basketball season, something that was a heartwarming surprise
to me. My last two years of school were hard at times but I kept my head up and continued to be
on the go.
To this day I still have issues with prolonged migraines I try not to let it keep me down
though, I attempt to be as productive as possible and do what I have to do to succeed with
whatever handicaps I may have. If it wasnt for that doctor, I would not be as determined as I am
today, and I thank her for being there to give a kind word to me. I overcame a lot in high school
and learned many lessons that I will apply to my life forever.