I’ll take you back two years to when I was in my senior year of high school. I was pulling good grades, had minimal distractions, and most people would say I had my life together. I had received acceptances to all the schools I wanted, and was eagerly waiting to finally start my own life.
Somewhere along the way, the stomach aches I had got progressively worse, to the point that I couldn’t move. I saw 4 different doctors, had 17 medical appointments in one month, and went through 9 complicated diagnostic tests. I missed close to two months of high school in my final semester of high school, either because I was in too much pain to go, or because I had an appointment of sorts. My grades in some classes dropped 30% and I had to drop out of a school musical. Luckily my teachers made various accommodations and I was able to graduate despite all my setbacks.
At this point you’re asking, well what’s the app? You can try to guess but I guarantee you’ll be wrong, especially if you think it’s some inspirational quotes app or something. Are you ready? It was Tap Tap Revolution. Weird, right? For some reason, the connection between the music I was hearing and the fast paced finger movements required so much focus that I temporarily forgot about the nauseating pain I was consistently in. These few moments of painless peace allowed me to work on school, focus better, or eat something – I was functioning off a diet of Gatorade and protein shakes. Over time, playing the game became so instrumental in ensuring my life wasn’t taken over by pain and allowed me to continue to function. To this day, if I am in class and I start to get a little shaky or feel a lot of pain, I’ll start playing a game to occupy my mind a bit and refocus. So the next time you see a kid playing a game in class, don’t just assume they’re not paying attention – it could be the only thing allowing them to pay attention.
Keep Surviving by Living.
Surviving By Living 