i never told you guys....

why i love statistics.

in my first post this month about my epilepsy, i mentioned that when i first started having seizures i was in a statistics class. which i hated. but now my scholarly and nerdy self has come to love it.

why?

part of me doesn't really know.

but part of me (this is going to get wayyyyyy deep) relates back to those days of my hatred of stats. and where i am now. i was two very different people. seizures and statistics have changed my life. well, the former more than the latter. but between my first seizure and my most recent (which has been 10 years), i have taken a total of FOUR, yes four collegiate statistics classes (one at the graduate level). sure i am bragging just a little bit. but you see, each time i took this class (no, it wasn't because i failed it the previous time)....i started to love it. and i couldn't believe it. i love statistics. and i only know the smallest fraction there is to know about the whole world of stats.
and the more i do research for my graduate program...guess what? the more statistics i find. and the more i love to see them there.
ok. this nerdiness has gone on way too long.

the point is: seizures and epilepsy have changed my life. they have probably saved my life. in some weird way. which i'll detail on in another blog, on another day.
epilepsy led me down my life path...which led me through four stats classes.

and now i have another skill and possibly career option (research??) that i was never even considering.

thank you stats, i love you.

how it all began...

it all began in statistics. at appalachian state university. i hated this class. more than anything. by the end of this story, i just may understand why i now love statistics.
i was a freshman in college. enjoying my second semester in boone, nc. away from home. making new friends. what college co-ed could complain?!
back to stats. the night before i had been out with some of my new friends. we'd been drinking. under-age. (gasp!) i know, can you believe i'd ever do such a thing? we'd stayed up wayyyyy too late. so late that i overslept. for stupid stats class. but somehow in my being late for class i managed to rummage through my roommate, jenna's, closet for the most perfect outfit to wear. i ran alllllll the way across campus. barely arriving to class on time was the last thing i remembered.

next thing i knew, i was being wheeled out of the math building on a stretcher. it was the scariest feeling in the world. i felt like i was in the twilight zone. i had no idea why paramedics and fire fighters surrounded me. at that point in time the last thing i remember was being out the night before. it just so happens that the apartments we had been at..were a mere 2 blocks from the math building. it was early morning, so i started thinking,"did i wander over here drunk?" "did i pass out over here?" "how the hell did i get here?"
so i did what any normal underage girl would do, i asked the paramedic if i was going to get in trouble for drinking. his response? laughter. of course i wasn't going to get in trouble! i wasn't drunk. but at this point, i had no idea what was going on. and neither did the paramedics.

it took me hours to start piecing my day back together. i finally remembered going home the night before. i didn't remember going to stats class though. you know what helped put it all together? me wearing jenna's purple top. if i had not done that, i don't think i would have been able to piece everything together the way that i did. i remember sitting at the hospital thinking, "i know i didn't wear this out last night...but how did i get into this outfit?" so, thank you jenna :o)

at the hospital they ran sooo many tests. they couldn't figure out what had happened to me. low blood sugar? a stroke? there were a couple of other weird suggestions in there, but i can't remember them now. after numerous tests they finally determined what it was: a seizure.

a what?!



november is epilepsy awareness month. so i'm sharing my story. and spreading the awareness :o)