Since I was born, I was always different. I never really had the easiest life when growing up. I was born with a rare medical condition called Horner syndrome. This medical condition I have is quite rare, especially if you are born with it. About less than 0.0000006% of the population has this condition. That number is nearly half of that if you are born with the condition. You may ask what this condition is? Is it deadly? Can it be harmful to one’s self?
Well, it all depends on what you do exactly. The condition itself is when your pupils are two different sizes meaning that one pupil is larger than the other. Also, sometimes people with this condition have two different color eyes. Which I also have one eye being blue and the other being green. However, the bad part about having this condition is that my one nerve on my neck is damaged may cause issues later in my life and I only sweat on one half of my body.
As a child, I always had a fascination with sports. When I was five, I started to play football. The issue was with the condition I had made me dehydrate fairly quickly. On a day that I’m not exercising I would have to drink a lot of fluids. For me to do something like this would be very challenging.
I would have terrible muscle cramps and body pains, but I still pushed on. No matter how hard it was on my body, I never gave up. Multiple doctors did want me to play since this condition is not made for high contact sports. I refused to them make my condition to be the reason for me to stop playing. This condition wanted to take me down, but I wasn’t going to let it. I kept playing football and other sports like basketball, and baseball. I made the starting team during my years in middle school and started as a tight end as a freshman and sophomore in high school.
I, however, had to stop playing sports not just for my medical condition but more so of the injuries to other parts of my body that I received during my days of playing sports. But I did not let my original diagnosis be the reason for me to stop playing. That’s why I believe that anyone can overcome adversity if they have enough heart and courage.