To Everyone- Update.. (long but i'd love it if you read it)

[Guest guest]

It has taken me five years to get to the place where I am today. In a little over a month I will be graduating from SFSU with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Graduation is a monumental event for anyone but I cannot help to think about what a struggle it has been to get where I am. In the five years of college I have gone through, I have had two hospitalizations, a pretty serious surgery, numerous severe infections, more blood tests, x-rays, and ct scans than I can even count, several MRI’s, an EMG, and many other tests to see progression of disease and figure out whether or not my symptoms were due to worsening JAS or something else. I have done loads of homework, written so many papers, taken tests, pulled all nighters, transferred from a community college to a university, went to parties, hung out with friends, joined a sorority and grown as a person. I have gone to more doctors’ appointments, met more specialists, and told my story to more

people in the last five years then the eighteen years before I started college. I have had the opportunity to work four different jobs (nanny, camp counselor, gymnastics instructor, and behavioral therapist) and volunteered through many organizations where I have been inspired and touched by the amazing people around me. I have lost range of motion, twenty five percent of my lung capacity, and had the amazing experience of having a picc line. I have fallen in love and fallen out of love just to fall in love with someone once more, I met the guy who I hope I will spend the rest of my life with the same year I experienced the worst loss of all, after a year of watching my mom fight a horrible battle against cancer, she passed away peacefully February of 2007. It is amazing for me to reflect on what I have been through in the last five years. So many of the experiences I could have done without and yet here I am a stronger person who is probably

better off because of it. I was sixteen years old when I joined this message board and seven years later I still consider each and every one of you like a second family. On May 24th, 2008 I will cross the stage at Stadium for SFSU’s graduation and I will finally be able to say I am a college graduate. After the five years I have had, the hard work, the devastation , the good times and the bad, I am so grateful for the experience I was given. When I graduated high school I remember Dr. Sanborge telling me that I needed to be realistic with my goals, to be prepared with the setbacks I may face because of having Juvenile Arthritis. There was a time when I wondered if I was going to be able to do college at all. Yet here I am at the end and realizing this is really only just the beginning. Although I feel such an immense happiness knowing that yes I have finally made it, nothing can change the sadness I

feel regarding the fact my mom will not be there that day to give me a hug and tell me how very proud she is of me. However I know that she is and her spirit, life lessons, and love follow me day in and day out and she is never really far from me at all. So where do I go from here? In a few months I will start back at school, apparently I just can’t get enough of it! I will be pursuing my dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. I was accepted into Notre Dame De Namur University’s multiple subjects teaching credential program, it is a one year intensive program where I will learn what I need to know and the following year get to start my career. I cannot help but feel blessed. I know this is super long so I just wanted to say thank you to all for the advice and support, the prayers and love that you have given me throughout the last seven years. I appreciate it so very

much.With Love; Salvucci (JAS, 23) Salvucci Behavioral Therapist Pacific Child and Family Associates San Mateo, CA 94402 c: 650-302-3703

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