Well, I’ve been running Athletics For Life for some time now. My friends actually joke because normally I start something up, get really into it for like 3 months, and then it falls to the way side. Truthfully, that’s pretty typical behavior for me. I do the same thing with hobbies. I’ll get really into something and then a short time later, my attention changes and I’m on to something new. Right away, the fact that AFL is still running has shown them that it means a lot to me, and I hope to others who have chronic disease.
Right from the get go, my purpose has been to raise awareness to disease, specifically Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease, after all, this is what I’m most familiar with. Nonetheless, even though IBDs (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) is my main focus, I do believe that someone with any disease can take at least something away from what I do. Again, at least that’s my focus. No disease is a laughing matter, as I found out the hard way. Treat them seriously before they affect you permanently. That was my mistake. Ditched my meds, thought I was indestructible and a year later and I was in rough shape.
Since then I have taken up soccer, started AFL, and begun my quest towards try outs. Hell, if I can at least attend an MLS open try out and finish it, regardless of the outcome after years of fighting Ulcerative Colitis, you can accomplish anything YOU set your mind to. That’s the goal, lead by example.
Yet, there’s two parts to my vision and that second part is awareness. That’s where these articles come in. If we don’t know what something is or if it even exists, how can we get rid of it for life? I have no plans to live the rest of my life with Ulcerative Colitis, and it hurts my heart to think of others living with this dreadful disease or even worse, its more painful and dangerous cousin, Crohn’s disease. Yet, to find cures for these things, we need to do research, and to do research we need money, and to get money, it needs to get attention. This is where I come in.
IBDs can be embarrassing to talk about for some people, I understand this. For the longest time, I was embarrassed about mine. I used to be so anti-social just out of fear for having to talk about it. I was, after all, that guy that would go to class, not say a word, and then charge out of class with his head down. Little did anyone else know that I did this because I needed to get to the bathroom and I needed to get there NOW. I was the guy on the bus who glared at everyone, a part of me jealous at those laughing and having fun while I sat in terror trying to make it to the plaza where my car was parked. Yet, no one understood this, but it was because I wasn’t talking.
Now I talk too much I think. But that’s a good thing. I want to be the voice for those who are uncomfortable to have a voice. With that in mind, with conjunction with AFL, I am starting up Gaming Against Disease geared towards online gaming with the idea of raising awareness for diseases. The issue here is I don’t have a Twitch account (yet) nor do I have a way of setting one up (yet) so in the meantime, I will be using the Periscope app. It doesn’t matter how or with what, but what matters is the voice. I have no idea how it will turn out, but it’s worth a try! So please spread the word! Tune in as I tackle some recent games, have a good time, probably chat about a bit of disease, and more importantly just raise awareness for the silent diseases that no one can see but many suffer with. It won’t be all disease talk, we are going to have fun, play some of the latest video games, and hopefully, through having a good time, we can raise some awareness and maybe some money to fight back against disease!
And as we expand here at AFL, I ask you to please be patient. A lot of things are on the horizon that I’m finally ready to jump into, one of them being Gaming Against Disease. I have much more planned, but you will have to wait and find out for the rest!