To Donna (long)

[Guest guest]

Hi Donna,

I am currently a first year law student at Seattle University in Seattle,

Washington. I'm originally from Colorado, though and graduated with a BA in

English Lit. from the University of Colorado this past May.

I give my parents a lot of the credit for helping me become the person I am

today and helping me achieve the things I've wanted to achieve. I think one of

the things that they did while I was growing up that helped me immensley was

that they ALWAYS treated me my age and not my size. I was not carried by

anyone after it was no longer age appropriate; I was expected to do chores

around the house just like my younger, non-RSS brother. Basically, I was

expected to perform to the best of my ability (just as my non RSS brother). I

think my parents also did a really good job of never telling me that I couldn't

do something because of my RSS or because of my size. If there was something I

wanted to do or try my parents did their best to help adapt the activity for my

size. I think people often equate small stature with frailty, so there is this

natural urge to physically (and sometimes emotionally) protect kids (and even

adults) who are short statured. I can tell you

without reservation that I am, by far, physically tougher than my brother and

most of my friends . This was also true growing up, and I'm eternally

grateful that my parents never put a limit on the kind of activities I was

allowed to participate in because of this fear (and as I get older, I am now

just starting to understand how terrified they must have been at some of my

requests and how hard it must have been for them to watch helplessly from

the sidelines). I guess what I'm trying to say (in a very verbose way) that

one of the things that helped me growing up was finding something (or things)

that I was good at and participating in those activities.

I think the final piece of advice I could or would give is to let your

daughter be as independent as possible. I know that being independent was

something that really bolstered my confidence and self-esteem throughout my

childhood and adolesence. My parents always made an effort to involve me in my

medical care as much as was age appropriatley possible and also let me be

independent in other areas of my life as well.

Umm, ok, I hope that answered some of your questions. I'm going to end this

now because a) I've written enough as it is (it's not at all obvious that I'm a

future lawyer, is it? <grin>) and I have a class in a few minutes. If there

was something I didn't touch on that you wanted me to, please let me know.

Also feel free to contact me with any further questions/concerns/etc. .

~Hillary

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