Not being defined by my disability

The school year is beginning anew. Classes are meeting for the first time. Professors are forming first impressions of their students. Freshmen are arriving on campus and trying to navigate the pre-established social order.

The arrival of the freshmen means there are 650 new students who don’t know about my Tourette’s. This equates to 1300 eyes turning to stare as I walk down the main pathway. 650 voices whispering crude jokes, nasty comments, or just the curious, “What is that dude’s problem?” These are 650 friendships killed before they ever had a chance to blossom, because people are afraid to get to know the weird kid (Is he high or something? Maybe he’s just crazy…)

As I pondered this issue, I came up with a few solutions.

The first was a sandwhich board reading, “Yes I have Tourette’s. No staring at me won’t cure it.” But that  would just draw extra attention to my differences, something I truly wanted to avoid.

The second option was to say nothing, to remain completely mum about the issue. The TS acts as a built-in filter against people who are judgemental or shallow, so I would be guaranteed only to start friendships with those who had matured beyond the “appearances are everything” stage. But then I realized this was college freshmen I was talking about. I would bet less then five of the 650 have passed that developmental milestone.

The third option, the only one of which had a chance of being effective, was to casually talk about my Tourette’s in conversations where it was relevant. This might sound impossible (when is TS relevant, and how do you casually mention it?) but I’ve accomplished it three times already and have only had positive reactions.

• Time 1: In the Freshman seminar I TA, we had students take as many jellybeans as they desired, and then for each jellybean reveal an interesting fact about themselves. My three: -In 9th grade I had to jump into a limo with a man I’d never met in order to escape a man on PCP with a knife and a piece of broken glass. -I have Tourette’s and make weird noises and movements sometimes, but it’s a neurological disorder which isn’t contaigous or deadly. -I was bitten three times this summer by a child angry I put on the wrong Sesame Street Video (show off arm scars). This way I got the information out, but I ensured I had other topics which would make far more interesting conversation fodder after class. (Moreover, I won for most outrageous factoid with the PCP story).
• Time 2:  In my autism investigations seminar, we have to discuss our interests in neuroscience in a roundtable fashion. After I talk about my interest in autism, I say, “I’m also fascinated by the use of drugs other than antipsychotics to control Tourette’s, particularly nicotine and marijuana. And yes, I know from personal experience that both are effective.” The class laughed, and though it might have registered that I have TS, the fact that I know where to find good bud will trump any reservations they have about my disability.
• Time 3: This time involved a prolonged tactic. The professor was very strait-laced and there was only time for one interesting fact, so I had to use the TS one. But I made sure the students didn’t leave with TS being the only association with my name. During a discussion of the importance of the Victorian period, I made a bold claim about no one remembering female authors who wrote prior to the 1800s. Thi stimulated a great deal of debate and discussion, and suddenly I was the “daring statement guy” instead of the “guy with Tourette’s.”

I have two classes left which have not yet met, one beginning today and the other on Monday. For both I plan to utilize one of the three tactics listed above. By the time Monday ends, I will have told roughly 100 people about my TS, not counting those who knew from last year. On a campus with only 2100 students, gossip spreads like wildfire, and by next Friday, I should no longer be an oddity, but rather a kid whose had cool adventures, smokes good green, can have a stirring intellectual debate, and oh yeah, has Tourette’s but not the cursing kind or anything.