Thursday, January 14, 2010

More About Me

A few readers wanted to know more about me.  Here is a little bit more information.

If you ask my grandmother, I was born five hours too late; I was born on March 25, 2000. The day my mother went into labor, my grandmother had to fly back home to Virginia. My parents were concerned about my health, because my older brother, Matthew, was also a very sick baby. It took awhile to figure it out, but I also had Mitochondrial disease. Even though this meant I had a lot of medical problems, my family was thrilled to have me, and they report I was still super cute.

While I was a baby, I had a monitor and an oxygen tank. Just to annoy my mom, I liked to pull the oxygen off my face and set the monitor beeping. During my first few years, I had LOTS of people coming to my house to give me speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. When I was six months old, I had my tonsils taken out for the first time. I scared everyone by reacting to the anesthesia in a weird way. I almost died.

When I was three, my parents applied me for a program called Super Saturday. They thought that the Imagination Movers division best fit my interests. Super Saturday was the start to all of the extra enrichment programs my parents signed me up for. In 2003, I started preschool at Little Lambs Nursery School. I LOVED it there!

I started Kindergarten at Stonegate Elementary School. At Stonegate, not only have I had great teachers, but I have also been able to participate in other enrichment programs such as Chess Club, Spanish Club, Ambassador’s Club, Spell Bowl, Math Pentathlon, and Choralaires.
Once I started reading, I have hardly ever stopped. An example of that is the fact that I have read five books in the past six days. In October, I started keeping a blog about a project I am working on, reading all of the Newberys before middle school. I like reading because it gives me a chance to escape from the real world into millions of other, imaginary worlds.

In third grade, I started a program called 4-H. 4-H is an enrichment program where children can take different projects and learn about things that interest them. During my first year I took sewing, scrapbooking, self determined, pigs, sheep, and computers. I was very successful and got a blue and an honor group for computers, a blue and an honor group for self determined, a blue for scrapbooking, and a blue, an honor group, a champion, and a reserve grand champion for sewing. My sewing project went on to state and got another blue.

Throughout my life, I have still struggled with Mitochondrial disease. In first grade I started using a computer instead of writing and a scooter instead of walking. Over Christmas break in third grade I had my second tonsillectomy (a surgery during which your tonsils are removed). The only good things about having surgery over Christmas are that you get to eat a lot of popsicles and no one else is there. Having Mitochondrial disease is not fun, but it is part of who I am and I have learned to deal with it.

So far my life has been wonderful. In the future I am looking forward to all of the things that I have left to learn in life. I am not sure what my career will be when I grow up, but some possibilities are an author, a mathematician, or a teacher.

7 comments:

  1. Dear Laura, I love life stories and yours is rather unique. Thank you for posting it. I like your outlook on life and it sounds like you have wonderful parents.
    Someday, maybe in high school, maybe sooner, I recommend Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear. It is about some children who have what the world considers a disease but the author presents as possibly a positive mutation in the species.
    Next week I am going to read Miracles on Maple Hill for my next Newbery book.
    Love, Judy

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  2. Thank you! I will add Darwin's Radio to my later to read list. Miracles on Maple Hill is a very good book. It didn't stack up with the others, but the story was still interesting. I will post about it soon.

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  3. Hi Laura,

    You're a very inspirational little girl! I heard about your blog from Elizabeth Bird of Fuse #8. I also love reading Newbery books, and I have a ten-year-old daughter. I used to live in Japan, so my favorite from the list is Kira-Kira, though I recently read When You Reach Me, and I loved that one too.

    May God continue to bless your reading and writing. I'm sure you'll grow up to be successful at whatever you're called to do!!

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  4. You are a great inspiration. We are starting a blog at our school this week and part of the reason is because we saw yours. Thanks for sharing. You can visit our new blog if you would like to at http://nhreads.weebly.com/

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  5. Hi Laura. I'm in 6th grade too! You have inspired me to read all the Top 100 Children's Novels! If you haven't read Sort of Forever then I think you should...It's one of my favorites!

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  6. Hi Laura. I am a teacher, and we are about to start our annual Newbery unit where we read possible winners, etc. Is there any way my fifth grade students could skype with you?

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  7. S.B. ~ I would love to Skype with your class! The tricky part would be finding a time that works with our school schedules. If you send me some possible times, I can work on being excused from my classes.

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