Not only for me but for them… (Raising funds and awareness for FA)

All of my cousins are an inspiration to me!

My cousin Leah Sommerfield has been travelling the world for almost a year now. She has had many adventures and stories that have filled more than a carry-on bag could handle. However, today I want to talk about her next and final adventure. She is going to be walking 1000 km across Spain, with her boyfriend, to raise funds and awareness for Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA).

Now you may be thinking why is she doing this. Well, two of my cousins, Chelsey and Brittany Sommerfield have FA. It is a degenerative neuro-muscular disorder that has no current cure. It has slowly taken away their motor abilities, such as writing, grabbing, and walking. They are 22 and 19, respectively, and both require a wheelchair and/or walker to get around.

When they were little though they could run and jump and play like anyone their age. It was the years approaching them being 16 and 13 that they noticed the changes. They were then diagnosed with the disease.

I wrote a personality profile on my cousin Chelsey for Journalism last semester.

When the assignment came it was hard. Listening to my cousin talk about some of her difficulties in an intimate and serious nature was different. I am used to a happy laughing Chels who, when she falls, laughs it off and gets back up. I didn’t realize the true strength that she and Britt both have until this assignment.

The Sommerfield family has been living with the constant adaptation to FA, and so I am used to hearing about falls that they take. The most recent was Britt falling and breaking her nose. (She is fine now and beautiful as ever no worries).

We all have made it our second job to help raise awareness of the disease that effects only one in 50,000 people. My cousins are two of three Manitobans that have been diagnosed.

I always wear a baby blue band around my wrist with the imprint “Fight Friedreich’s Ataxia”, so when people ask what that is for I have the chance to explain to them what it is like living with and being a family member to someone who has FA.

Chelsey and Brittany both have a tattoo on their ankles saying, “Not only for me… but for her.”

Not only for me… But for her. (photo credited to Brittany Sommerfield’s Facebook).

And I think this is the motivation behind the Sommerfield family. I am a proud cousin to all of my relatives. They are an inspiration to me. So I wanted to take this space in my blog to share Chelsey and Brittany’s story, and also share my cousin Leah’s effort in spreading the awareness 7067.60 km further than we could ever imagine.

So please, not only for me… but for them, if you would like to learn more about their stories and go the extra mile and donate to the cause click HERE!

(All of the proceeds raised will go to The Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) to help find a cure).

 

Feeling a little philosophical today…

There is a saying that has been coming to mind a lot lately, “The only thing constant in life is change.”

Everything will always be slowly changing. Your body cells are always rejuvenating and the weather is ever unpredictable all the while the seconds go by on the clock to a new hour.

So why is it when things come to a close, or change noticeably, that it is such a shock to the system.

The season, at least on the calendar, is changing. For me I’m a year older. Some may be dealing with more personal changes. For the second years their school career is coming to a close. And for the first years their term long projects are coming to an end.

These are milestones, and ones that have prominence. Being uncomfortable with these changes is a normal reaction, but being able to handle and adapt to changes is in our blood. It is how we all got here. Without these milestones we wouldn’t be able to grow and learn. I think we have a mild “freak out” when it happens because we get comfortable with the subtle and unnoticeable changes. So, when they show themselves we don’t know what to do.

But, we do because we have dealt with it all along.

Remember that.

What a week..

IPP. IPP. IPP. Magazine. IPP. Magazine. Magazine. Sleep?

Right now it is probably safe to say those are the words that every CreCommer is mumbling after every sip of coffee and struggle they endure to keep their eyes open. 

This week in one word was… INTENSE!

First year CreCommers have been closing down the school each and every night working on their magazine project while the second year students were preparing for their Independent Professional Project (IPP) presentation. 

It is weird to think that only a few months ago the first year CreCommers met their magazine group for the first time and were maybe only fighting to decide on a topic. Now they are fighting tight schedules, strongly discussing word choices for magazine articles, and struggling to work with columns, all the while hoping that, at the end of this, a little bit of their sanity will stay intact. 

On that note my tip for the week is to have a support system.

It is something we heard on repeat throughout the second years IPP speeches. Their thank-you portion of their speeches were full of people that were their support system. 

It is always nice to have a set of people behind you when the stress seems overwhelming.

Someone who is there who understands you are not a crazy person when you lose your mind and start “cry laughing”. 

Someone who will listen to your story over and over and over and over and then over again and each time act as if it is the first time you have said it. 

Someone who will pick you up when you are down or push you when you seem to be losing steam.

Basically surround yourself with people that make sure you are continuously moving forward. If you don’t then this entire school thing may make you lose your mind.

 

AdWords..

For Ad class today we learnt about AdWords and how Google searches things for you. (Kinda interesting/creepy how Google searches check it out here).

AdWords in the simplest form can be answered by this, “When people want to search for you or your blog what do you think they type?”

You can set up an Ad for your blog and get a small cut of money for it. It is better if you run your Ad campaign though in times that correspond with your blog theme.

So for example, the theme of my blog is school and tips to surviving College (more specifically CreComm). This means the best time for me to run an AdWords campaign would be the beginning of a school year, so August or September, because that would be the time that students are frantically looking for validation that they will survive, or need some tips on how to do this college thing.

That is a short overview of what AdWords is if you want to set up your own campaign go over to Google AdWords.

Here are some of my campaign ideas:

– CreComm Survival Guide.
Samantha Sommerfield’s how to
Take it week by week here…
https://sommerfieldsurvival.wordpress.com

– Sommerfield Survival.
Survive 154 days of a CreComm year
Straight from a Red River student
https://sommerfieldsurvival.wordpress.com

– A college how-to guide!
Get student tips week by week
Easier than reading your homework..
https://sommerfieldsurvival.wordpress.com

– School assignments, lame.
Procrastinate, you already are
This read is easier than homework
https://sommerfieldsurvival.wordpress.com

– New college student?
Don’t stress out so much
Read this survival guide for tips
https://sommerfieldsurvival.wordpress.com

What do you think? Any stand out to you? What would be best to make me some more mula? Let me know!