Page 69 - 2019 UDMB Senior Will

and instead walks over to the vending machines and buys stuff from there. I remember thinking...what is wrong with this girl? And it turns out a lot of things cause her body won’t let her eat anything without having an allergic reaction. Then we found out we were living in the same dorm and we were gonna be in calc together. Now we’ve been living together for almost 2.5 years and were co-captains together...man that shit really does go fast.
And sophomore year happened. Not gonna lie I don’t really remember much except the uniform.
Then junior year happened. Now I’m a captain, the lil baby junior captain with 3 other senior co-captains. I met lil baby Jeremy at auditions and he could not spin a flag for his LIFE then suddenly he picks up a weapon and tosses a cold 5 and catches it so solidly I was shook. And then you had all the skirts and glitter (there’s still some on the floor of my room), last year was a time. Me personally...I was still trying to figure out my leadership style and where I fit as a captain and a friend and I look back on it and think about how much I’ve grown in the past year as a captain, a leader, and a person.
Then sometimes life decides to throw you a curve ball and fuck you over.
I’ll give you the short version of what happened. I had these red dots show up all over my feet and ankles one night. And they wouldn’t go away. I saw doctor after doctor, no one could figure it out. I even was incorrectly diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. 6 months later, I finally get a diagnosis. While in Dayton about to go on for prelims with Delazure, the new doctor I found calls to tell me that she thinks she knows what’s going on. I get a kidney biopsy 5 days later to see if her suspicions were correct, which they were. In April I was diagnosed with Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (yes it’s a real thing, you can look it up), and IgA Nephropathy which was causing kidney disease. I lost 30-40% of my kidney function in about 5 months. (If you want all the details and the full story you can check out my blog https://justagirlwithsomestories.home.blog/) I was put on a high dose of steroids and a whole cocktail of other medications in addition to adopting a low sodium diet. And I watched all the side effects happen. My face swelled up, my ankles and legs had so much fluid I had problems walking, my hair starting falling out, I got insanely bad cramps in my hands where I actually had problems spinning for awhile and even holding a pencil. This journey has been taxing both mentally and physically and was a complete life changer.
But, I was suddenly told that I couldn’t be out in the sun because steroids make you photosensitive. My doctor specifically told me that I should not do band. I didn’t listen. And I struggled at band camp this year. Passing out cause my blood pressure was SOOOO low, getting sent to the ER because I was so dehydrated I hadn’t peed for several days...I really had a rough time, not to mention my face was still the size of Texas (WE LOVE STEROIDS).
Honestly what got me through was this guard. This amazing group of people. I came back to rehearsal after my stint in the ER and I told the guard to nag me to drink water. Anytime a guard member walked past me they said “Jackie drink water.” Constantly that afternoon all I heard was “JACKIE DRINK MORE WATER.” They all cared so much and they made me want to keep going.
This was an amazing show to end my college band career with. Anyone who knows me knows that I DO NOT SPIN WEAPON. So when I was suddenly told everyone was gonna be on gun for the Intro INCLUDING ME, I looked at Rachel in terror. Then I also somehow ended up on saber for Space Oddity. This year definitely took me out of my comfort zone (aka flag) but how else do you grow? And PLEASE KEEP ME ON FLAG IN INDOOR K THANKS.