Senior Year- 2003-2004

Dragon Naturally Speaking

With Dad and Mom at graduation 

After such a rocky junior year of undergrad, I was apprehensive about my senior year.  Would my symptoms come back?  How bad would they be?  In preparation for the worst, my parents bought my a speech recognition program (I think my mom was haunted by the memory of being stuck in a room with me for 5 days writing term papers), and a new computer that could support the software. 

I spent hours training the software to recognize my voice.  Anyone who has ever dealt with an airline or other company that requires you to speak to a computer before you can talk to a real person (if you can ever talk to a real person) knows that it can be a frustrating experience.  In 2003, this "top of the line" software was not much different.  It misunderstood me regularly.  I had to learn to enunciate carefully and learn the commands for punctuation.  Editing was a nightmare.  Still, there were humorous moments, speaking my friend's names or ridiculous sentences into the program and seeing what it came up with. 

Celebrating my 22nd birthday in style

Fortunately, I never had to use the software.  I made it through senior year with very few symptoms.  Of course I had the residual changes in hot and cold sensitivity and some numbness, but nothing that affected my ability to type or get around.  The only new symptom that I developed was a twitch.  Whenever I relaxed, my body would jump a little.  Sometimes just my shoulders, sometimes it was my entire body.  It was a little distracting, but since I was never relaxed in class or at my student teaching placements, it never caused me any embarrassment or difficulty.

The original crew from Jones Hall

Graduation

In May, I sat (in the freezing rain) with my friends of the past 4 years and listened to Senator Schumer give his commencement address.  They had helped me through the toughest moments of the past 2 years.  Without their support, I don't know if I could have made it to graduation.  It was hard knowing that we would not be living so close together, but we promised to keep in touch and visit frequently. 

That summer, for the first time, I didn't go back home.  I stayed in Geneseo and lived with my boyfriend, Steve.  Even thought it was only a for couple of months, it was big step for me, and for us, but it felt right.  Even then I knew that I wanted to be with Steve for the rest of my life. 

When summer ended, I moved in with a girl who I had lived with the previous year and began my masters program.  At that point, my MS had been relatively dormant for almost a year.  Thankfully, it remained dormant even through some stressful and emotional times that following year.  My next attack didn't occur until the summer of 2005. 

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