I’m a freshman in high school who loves to read and joke around with my friends. I also love to go to my hometown’s football games and root on my friends who are on the team, even in the rain. When the school dances roll around, I’m one of the first ones pushing and shoving to get in. So what makes me different from all the other teenagers?

I have juvenile fibromyalgia syndrome.

I was diagnosed in seventh grade and sometimes I can’t do all the things I love. Acting is one of my loves, and it always will be. But I haven’t been able to act since I was diagnosed because it is too much physical activity for me.

I remember the last play I was in after I was diagnosed. We did “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown,” and I was Peppermint Patty. During the performance for our school, we were doing a dance number and my arms started to get sore and heavy. Then my ankles were also starting to get sore. I just tried to keep dancing and ended up tripping over my own two feet and landing on my rear end. The only good part is then we were dancing around the stage and I was behind the pulled back curtain then.

One day I was in science class and I was having a down day. We were working on something and my friend noticed how sore I was. I had told her I had read somewhere that, for fun, some people with FM call themselves “fibromites” and people without FM “normies.” She started cracking jokes and calling me her fibromite. She also started to encourage me and kept calling me a fibromite fairy, since I love fairies. It made me feel better enough to push through the rest of the day.

Recently I went on a trip with my French Club to Boston to see “Phantom of the Opera” and to eat at a French restaurant. I had taken my pain medication before we got to the restaurant and it was making my stomach upset and I was kind of drowsy. I was not remembering what escargot was and took a scoop of it onto my bread. Well, it turns out it was, oh yeah, snails! I was thinking, “Eww, gross!” Makes me think twice about taking my medication before I eat.

Even though I have plenty more funny fibro goofs I could share, I also have plenty of not-so-funny moments. I have had to alter my lifestyle greatly; sometimes I can’t be a “normal” teenager. I used to be a cheerleader, but ever since the fourth grade (when I first started to have pain), I have stopped. I also don’t draw as much as I used to. My drawing book lies in the bottom of my dresser, collecting dust.

Gym is no longer fun to me. It never really was because I’m more of a bookworm, but I always enjoyed being with my friends. Now they have all found their little niches in gym class and pushed me out. But because of that, I found my niche. I do way better on the bike then a lot of them ever could.

I also enjoy books, reading, and writing. English is so much fun for me, even though my class is a bunch of ingrates. A lot of them don’t even understand a word bigger then five syllables, let alone FM. Except for one of my close friends who pushes me to speak up in class (for the obvious reasons that I tend to want to argue with everyone about the subject).

I have met people in my life who don’t believe in FM or who are scared of it. I just laugh in their faces if they say they don’t want to be my friend anymore because of it. I tell them that one day they will regret the day they left Ashley Young! I have great friends who are there for me and love me despite my JFMS. And if some people can’t except that, then it’s their loss.