Emily Kittle and Her Coping Methods

Emily is a freshman in high school, in Journalism loving to write. She is a very artistic person, and she not only enjoys writing but also loves painting, drawing, and listening to music. She said, “It is very therapeutic to me.” I couldn’t agree with her more on that. Emily also told me that she likes “to observe and create” by herself and that she “isn’t the type to sit in the front of the class” nor the one to raise her hand. She says that she is a wallflower, which means she is introverted, and will usually distance herself from crowds and actively avoid being in the spotlight. I understand that too, to a certain extent. 

Emily has paintings and drawings all over her walls; painting and drawing are two really big passions of hers. Her favorite technique of painting is the paint-pouring technique. This technique is when all of the colors are poured into the same cup and then poured onto the surface that is to be painted on. Music was another passion Emily mentioned, and she told me, “If I could have one thing in the world, it would probably be music.” Music is very important to Emily, and it helps her with a lot of things. Music helps her a lot emotionally. Her “passion is so high” that she writes her own songs. On Wednesdays after church, she’ll “go up to the microphone and sing them” until her brother is ready to leave. 

Emily also loves to do what pretty much every other person loves to do, which is watching Netflix, playing video games, and watching YouTube. Her favorite shows to watch on Netflix include: “Riverdale,” “13 Reasons Why,” “The Walking Dead,” and “Friends.” She went to the set of “The Walking Dead” for her birthday, and she loved it. “It was the best birthday ever!” 

When she talked about video games being a hobby of hers, she said, “I love a bunch of shoot-em-up games, exploring games, building games, anything really.” She watches YouTube a lot, and her favorite YouTubers are Sam & Colby, Markiplier, and Jacksepticeye. Emily seems to have a very busy life, doing all of these things in it.  Emily is a very interesting human being and not what I expected. That isn’t a bad thing at all: I really like her character. Something very special and different about Emily, though, is that she has been dealing with “a chronic illness for the past 5 years”: epilepsy.

“I’ve had silent seizures since I was 10, but when I was 12, I was diagnosed with another type of epilepsy called Tonic Clonic seizures as well as other ones,” Emily stated. Emily has “learned to appreciate the small things” because in the past five years with a chronic illness, she has realized that she can’t get her driver’s license. She “can’t over-exert” herself like she used to. Emily said that this has also taught her “to appreciate the small stuff like running on a treadmill for 15 minutes.” Anything good, small or big, she has learned to enjoy, appreciate, and be thankful for. Her diagnosis of this chronic illness has made her see things in life very differently, and in a positive way.

I started talking to Emily recently, and she is a very nice and interesting girl, and I hope she has a great future.