The last thing I remember while in the operating room before my knee surgery was hopping onto the operating table. Being super out of it from the drugs, I could barely muster up the energy to slide myself over, thus my underwear slid down while I announced: WHOOPS. There goes my undies! And immediately passed out.

I have been having knee problems since I was four years old. My limbs were slightly growing at different rates. My pediatrician thought I would grow out of that but my limbs just kept growing at different rates until I needed to have my first among many surgeries to try and alleviate that issue. It wasn’t super noticeable, except that one time when I tripped in chemistry class. Of course the class bully pointed it out to everyone, not like it wasn’t obvious before. 

Surprisingly though, my older sister Kelsey is super cool and coordinated. Some would argue she was the bully of her grade, but she was never like that with me. Whenever we walked into school together she always glared at anyone who gave me a second look. To be fair, Kelsey didn’t have it easy in our household. She bore the brunt of our father whose mood swings were like night and day. I think he probably had some sort of chemical imbalance, but you can’t tell him that. Anyway, I had Kelsey to learn from and hide behind but anything Kelsey did just seemed to exacerbate dad’s naturally unpleasant mood. He went MIA for a few weeks last year. No one heard a peep from him for 17 days. Then all of a sudden he came back as a completely new person. Was usually smiling and even keeled. We thought he might have entered a facility or rehab but thought it was too short of a time for admittance, or the very least too short of time to turn his naturally sour disposition. Two weeks later he came to my back to school night and attended two of Kelsey’s volleyball meets. I wanted to believe in the new dad but too much damage had already been done to Kelsey and she was too busy protecting herself and watching out for me. It didn’t matter, Kelsey would be off to college within the year anyway. I was the one just getting through my freshman year. It was a necessity to thrive in a household with dad.

Kelsey was so close to escaping our household when her car was hit from the side and needed to spend 4 months in rehab and defer her first year of college for the unforeseen future. I’m so proud of her. Most people would have been down and out after that, but instead - with all of Kelsey’s free time and nothing other to do than stare at her phone and computer, started a non-profit for at risk youth which is now a statewide organization in Ohio.