I'm proudly wearing purple to show that epilepsy can be empowering!

I learned about this really cool organization called the Anita Kaufman Foundation who started a "Purple Day" initiative to get people all over the world to wear purple on March 26th to raise awareness about epilepsy and get people talking about it.Very briefly: people are said to have epilepsy only after they have had more than 1 seizure. There are many different types of seizures that can effect people in many different ways, some fall down, others may stop talking abruptly and start smacking their lips or pulling at their clothing. No seizure is exactly alike. If you'd like to learn more about epilepsy please click here.)

So as you can see below I wore purple today. What I like about the shirt I'm wearing is that it says "Empowering Young Women With Disabilities." I think the shirt applies because in some respects I think being diagnosed with epilepsy has been a strangely empowering experience. I was diagnosed when I was 19 and if you'd asked me at the time whether I felt empowered the answer would have been an emphatic no! However, since then I've come to feel empowered by it. Having epilepsy has helped me to see the strength that people have, (myself include)d in refusing to let epilepsy stop them from doing things they wanted to do. I've met some amazing people who have epilepsy and I feel empowered by their example as they make me want to grow and be a better person and to find more ways to help others.

I know that having a condition that appears to take all the control over your body away from you at times, probably seems like a very disheartening thing to experience. However, because I've gone through such experiences I really believe I can get through them if they happen again and so they don't feel so frightening to me. Perhaps this is because I've been lucky that my epilepsy is now well managed that I'm able to see things in this way. However, I still think there are so many things in life that are out of everyone's control and yet people somehow always find ways not just to "get by" but also to thrive! So I'm going to thrive and perhaps where purple more often while thriving! If you'd like to read more about Purple Day click here.