Clinger 1

Kieren Clinger

Dr. Cassel

English 1201

19 January 2022

This I Believe

I was born on the 3rd of April 2002 at 8:21 pm with my twin sister in Yuma, Arizona. I

was born two months due to a prenatal brain bleed. The doctors determined that I had a rare

mental disability called Periventricular Nodular Heterotopia (PVNH). I am one of 36 people who

have been diagnosed with PVNH. Over my lifetime, I would say I've been through a lot now. I'm

not saying my life is as bad as the people in Third World countries or homeless people but, I

would say wearing a hearing ai, glasses, taking pills on the daily, going to the doctors non-stop,

and being poked and prodded at with needles or questions life gets rough. That is not all. I lost

both my brothers (Keegan {age: 21} when I was nine and Tristan {age: 28} when I was four-

teen).

As I've said over the years, my life hasn't been fun. Sure I have had those days where ev-

erything's fine, and you think that nothing ever happened to me that I was the happiest girl in the

world. Then throughout high school and school in general, I would say I didn't have very many

friends. I was one of the weird ones; that's OK, but in reality, it is when it hit in high school.

Because of my brain and how it processes things, I don't process social cues well I tend to

get into peoples faces when it's not needed; I don't really understand when somebody tells me to

stop, and I don't see a bad situation when others do, and over the years I've worked on it, but it's

still hard. I remember immensely one that caused me to have trust issues, or I like the guy in high

school. I thought he was so lovely and sweet and caring, but in reality, he wasn't. He emotionally
 Clinger 2

and mentally abused me and played with my feelings, and I couldn't see that because of the way I

cried social cues. And yes, I got help the situation resolved. But I still believe you never judge

based on somebody's past or what they look like; instead, judge by their character.

My life constantly has difficulties, but if I'm honest, I believe that life is like a painting,

your painting, that you decide the colors and brushstrokes. All those nicks and mess-ups are just

your bad days, and by the end of your life, you look at your painting, and it's beautiful no matter

how you lived your life.

I believe that you should be nice to people no matter their background and judge not what

they look like but their character. I was always taught to be kind, caring, and loving to people. If

I could, all the Hate, racism, sexism, and anything wrong with the world would be gone, but

that's not how life works. We have to take our paintbrush and keep painting.

If I could sum this up with a quote, it would be, "Keep your chin up, someday there will

be happiness again (Robin Hood: Disney)."