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Axel Perales
Ms. Gardner
English 10H/Per. 4
28 January 2016
My Little Brain
Ive had the flu before, but not as intense as this one. My parents had planned to take me
to the doctors office to check how bad this flu was. I groggily rose from my bed, dragging
myself to my closet to get dressed. At that moment, my ears began to hear a deafening ringing.
My vision became completely blurry, seeing nothing but golden-yellow spots glistening on what
was my bedroom wall. My legs felt numb, converting into the ramen noodles I ate at the San
Francisco mall. My body felt utterly feeble, as if everything just stopped working.
I cried, Mom! Dad! Help! fearing that I would lose my balance and collapse. The
Life-Alert commercial where that old lady said, Ive fallen, and I cant get up, started running
through my head. I stumbled along the deceptively flat floor out of the house and into the
sunlight to climb into my dads pine green Chevy truck. These episodes would constantly happen
from mid-January to February in 2014.
When I improved and eventually got back on my feet, my parents took me to the Oakland
Childrens Hospital to see about my state. There, the chief of neurology tested me in regards to
my coordination and balance. At the end, she told us that it was the Tamiflu, a medication for the
flu that tasted an awful lot like cardboard, that caused this calamity. She said, The Tamiflu,
instead of helping you, did the exact opposite. What happened was that it went straight to your

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cerebellum, that small part at the back of your brain that controls your balance and coordination,
and practically sat on it.
Wow. I had never realized that something so small could affect me so drastically.
Initially, the cerebellum to me didnt seem to be a very vital part of my body; in fact, I had no
knowledge of it beforehand. I felt like Leonardo da Vinci, discovering this little brain for the
first time ever.
When the doctor explained to me of its importance, I became very interested in
researching more about it. When we had returned home after hours of traffic, I got on my moms
Mac and tucked myself into my bed, eager to find more about the cerebellum. With the almighty
guidance of Google, I delved in and found something about it from the Department of
Neurobiology and Anatomy at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, brought to you by the
University of Texas. Their page said:
The cerebellum (little brain) is a structure that is located at the back of the brain,
underlying the occipital and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex. Although the
cerebellum accounts for approximately 10% of the brains volume, it contains over 50%
of the total number of neurons in the brain. Historically, the cerebellum has been
considered a motor structure, because cerebellar damage leads to impairments in motor
control and posture and because the majority of the cerebellums outputs are to parts of
the motor system. ...The cerebellum is involved in the following functions: Maintenance
of balance and posture...Coordination of voluntary movements...Motor learning[and]
Cognitive functions.

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Huh. Never knew about that before, I thought. Go figure: because of the Tamiflu, I had
felt as if I were the Ramones in the song Teenage Lobotomy, feeling that I got no
cerebellum.
I previously knew its responsibility for my balance (thanks to the doctor at the Oakland
Childrens Hospital), but I remained oblivious to its other, likewise crucial, responsibilities. The
fact that something so minuscule could consist of more than half of the brains neurons
astonished me. Solely reading up on it gave me goosebumps; it was like reading a superhero
comic.
In conclusion, even the smallest, insignificant things are of great importance. The
cerebellum is our little motor for stability and cognition. Without it, though we may continue to
speak, hear, breathe, and feel, we would be unable to stand up (whether for our beliefs or just in
general) and acknowledge the world around us. We need the cerebellum to mobilize to school, to
Standing Rock, even to our couch to binge-watch Stranger Things. This little guy keeps our
stance robust, for whatever purpose we may attain to.
Moreover, the cerebellum has opened my mind to discovering the functions of smaller
things. I find it fascinating that in our human body we have a multitude of organisms and cells
and body parts that we dont think much about in our common lives; I reckon we have sectors of
our body that are yet to be disclosed. Its like the old saying, You learn something new
everyday. This experience, in my eyes, parallels to this saying.