ABC News, Shaking Things Up

Last week the producers of 20/20 reached out to me again. They expressed how the update episode is yet to be aired, and how they wanted me to be healthy and thriving through life for a positive update on my story. When I told them I had declined since they filmed the second time back in August, they were disappointed. "We really want something that can connect the viewer, and show them you are real and you are doing well, something inspiring" Which I was not able to provide them currently. Still they push off the update episode airing until the right time and I fight for a day I will feel better. One of the important things they brought up over the course of my connection to ABC News' 20/20, was how people want to hear more about just my illness, but my life as a teenager with an illness. For this reason I decided to post from here on out about personal matters as well as medical ones. In my eyes, a blog is not a diary and not a good place to air out dirty laundry. However, if people want to know what goes through my mind, and where I see myself in the future, and how my dating life or school life or work life is, then I will have to share a few stories. I want nothing more than to help someone out there feel like they are not alone. So far my dry writing concept has appealed to parents and adults suffering with Lyme or children with the disease, but to all you teenage girls and boys out there: I'm struggling to be a normal teen too. It has affected my entire teenage years, from the time I was 12, and I want you to feel like you can connect with my story and feel encouraged to keep swimming! I have often thought of writing a book with collections of my stories of life, lyme, and living through teen years/young adulthood. It is still an option for me, when my brain becomes more clear and I can write for hours on end (not right now). I think sharing my unique story would be something I could look back on and appreciate 50 years from now. I just wish I was well enough to write it out. The Biography of Me, sounds quite cheesy when you think about it, but I have more life experience that some people twice my age do, and why not share it with the world in a series of funny, heart wrenching,  and inspiring twists? This is something I will consider in time, possibly even begin writing someday. For now I await 20/20's update episode, to tell the world about my pageantry and dating life and all the rest, and I will blog about some of my past year as I transitioned into legal adulthood and took on responsibility I wish I could give back.