We all go through times in our lives where we have to face adversities; it’s one of life’s few certainties. In most cases, we as social beings are able to find a group of likewise individuals, who share these adversities with us, and are able to go to this new found group for support and questions you may have. There are times, however, that this is not an option. Whether it may be you’re too proud to ask for help, or can’t find those facing the same issues as you, there are times where we have to face these obstacles alone. In my opinion, these can easily be some of the harder problems we face in our short time here; because these problems are the ones where we have to learn and grow on our own, without the possibility of asking those who have faced this issue before. These can also be the times in which we grow the most.
For me, the biggest adversity was being unnaturally short, or so I thought at the time. To give you an idea of how this affected me growing up, when I was 16 and got my license, I was 4’6; four feet, six inches tall. I always dismissed it, thinking I would grow eventually, but it wasn’t until I was 17 when I finally found out something was wrong. That was when they did an MRI at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and found out that at the base of the brain, where the pituitary gland should be, there was no gland there. I was born without one. For the next four years, I had to take daily shots of Human Growth Hormone and then monthly shots of Testosterone to simulate the glands that weren’t getting the instructions to release the glands’ hormones naturally. To this day, I still have to apply Testosterone gel daily.
This is an odd, rare condition, so it’s hard asking those around you for help when they have little to no idea of what is even going on in the first place. Even doctors that I’ve talked to seem to have very limited knowledge on the subject. I did a lot of research of the condition online, and most of the stories I’ve seen were much worse, as a lot of those without the gland don’t even have the motor skills fully developed to function without assistance.
In an interview, I was asked “What would set you apart from other applicants?” The first thing that comes to mind is obvious… facing adversities. Being able to face something that very few people have had to go through has given me a lot of strength, in my opinion. While the condition in my life could’ve been much worse, it’s something with which I had to learn to be flexible. I had to learn to improvise within an instance. I learned to take something that can be considered a burden and used it to become a more patient and resilient person. It taught me that it’s not what you have; it’s what you can do with what you’ve been given in life.