Graduation, College, and Newfound Friends and Adventures

I did it! I finally graduated high school successfully, and have moved on with my life!

My amazing sisters

Jake and Natalia, two of my dearest friends and most favorite people in the world

Natalia. My best friend since Kindergarten. I love you!

"Achieved Graduation"-Sims 3 High-Five

Some of the lovely ladies from my Bible study 

I am sitting here in my dorm at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor! As I sit here among friends, I realize that I forgot some important friends: y'all! So this post is just kind of a bring-you-up-to-speed/my college adventures thus far.

I am sitting in one of the common areas with my amazing roommate, (Avery), our friend, (Ashley), and our (kind of strange) amazing RA, (Maggie). I have been here at school since August 20, and I am honestly loving it. College is the best thing that has ever happened to me! It is so amazing to be able to come here, and share my testimony with others. I hope that I can inspire others while here at UMHB, and that I can pour into their lives as they have poured into mine.

The best part of UMHB so far is the people that I have met here. I know that we have only been here about a month and a half, but I feel as if I have known most of these people my whole life. They are amazing, and are literally the kindest people I have ever met. My RA is absolutely AMAZING. I love her to death! She is the best RA at UMHB, and is the sweetest person alive. (Do I get paid for this now, Maggie?)

Before I came to school, my number one worry was not about classes or moving away from my parents. It was actually about my roommate. Throughout the entire summer, people told me that they either had a really good roomie experience, or an awful, terrible, horrid experience. So naturally, as any average female would be, I was nervous when my roommate walked into the room. My stuff was spewed everywhere, all over the room. My mom was trying to rearrange the furniture, and I was trying to tell my mom that we should "Wait on roommate. She may not want the furniture arranged this way..." Of course, while our room is a disaster and my mom is in the process of pushing one of the beds across the room, my roommate walks in. Soon, we put the room back together from the mother-tornado, and we started to bond over the decorating process.

Avery and I started texting each other in early May, just to get to know each other because we got along over a Facebook group message. I originally had another roommate, but she made other arrangements, which left me roommate-less. Avery didn't have a roommate around May, and by the end of the month we both realized that we got along pretty dang well. We requested each other as roommates, and DING! It was a match made in heaven. I don't know why I was nervous about meeting her in person, but I was.

It is pretty amazing how fast you can be friends with someone. That's how it was with me and Avery. We get along extraordinarily well. We do a lot together. We eat together, are in the same clubs/organizations, share a room, and even watch movies together. Avery is a fantastic roommate, but she's an even more fantastic friend, and I am so glad that we have had this chance to be with each other at UMHB!

AVERY!!! and me 

This past weekend was family weekend! My parents and one of my sisters came into Belton to watch the UMHB Crusaders (woohoo division 3 sports!), and see the campus and whatnot. It was so great seeing the family again! I missed them, but I am not as homesick as I was expecting I would be. Home will always be home, but UMHB just feels like a second home to me. God definitely put me here for a purpose! I have never felt more confident in where I am supposed to be.

The Fam. 

Here are some various pictures of various events at UMHB! 

Katie!

Dylan! 

Okay, so it's all football. But hey, our team is really good! And it's the primary time to socialize and get out there with people as a group. The picture on top is of my dear friend Katie, whom I have grown so close to this year. She is so kindhearted, and her spirit is so sweet. I love her to death! We have late night talks, and I know I can trust her with anything. The bottom picture is of my incredible friend, Dylan. His warm personality and amazing friendship has made me feel all the more at home here, and I cannot be more thankful for him. He has truly changed my life, and I cannot ask for a better friend. 

Classes? Oh yeah, classes. I do go to class guys! I am currently taking 17 hours, and am surprisingly doing very well with it. My workload is not that bad at all, and I am doing well. I'm a business major, and my business classes are the favorite parts of my day. (Besides the one at 8:00am. Ew.) Everything is pretty easy, and I am able to do what I need to do. I actually have more free time than I did in high school, and I actually get more sleep. It's so strange! 

As y'all know, I like to make up stories on my limb loss rather than the typical Neurofibromatosis spiel. I have told the typical stories such as shark attack and bear maulings, but I of course tell people the REAL story after I see their face go from interested to shocked. Nothing too intense has happened so far....my prosthesis is generally staying on, and I haven't broken it or anything yet. Although I did fall off my bike the other day in front of like four people...so I busted my real leg up pretty badly from that. 

Well, I thank you for reading this update on my life. College is amazing, and I cannot wait to post more crazy adventures with y'all. I wish you all good grace, and godspeed. 

Choppity Chop!

Senior year is going by quickly! As of today, we have 68 days until we graduate, which cannot come fast enough! I have had an amazing senior year so far, but can't wait to go off to college next year!

I just got  a new leg, which is awesome. It's a vacuum system rather than a pin lock system. I love it. It actually stays on, which is a plus, and it keeps up well.

Every year, my school sends all of the seniors off on a senior trip to a destination that the senior class votes on. This year, our school voted for Costa Rica! It was an amazing trip. We got to go see volcanos, trees, and a lot of gorgeous scenery. Hiking was easy with my new leg, and zip lining was great because my leg stayed on rather than falling off into the dark depths of the Costa Rican jungle. We ate a lot of rice and beans. Rice and beans with every single meal. Every. Single. Meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner....beans and rice all the time. Needless to say, I have not eaten rice or beans since I've gotten back two weeks ago.

After a week of fun, it was finally our last day. We had the choice to either go white water rafting or to a private island and go beaching. Living in Texas, the only beach I have ever been to is Galveston, which is basically a dumping ground of many surrounding waters. The water in Galveston is grayish brownish green and nasty, while the waters in Costa Rica are clear and blue! So of course, I chose beach day. Besides, you can white water raft in the U.S.

My friend, Ashleigh, and I were looking for something to do. We decided that we wanted to bury another friend, Hutson in the sand. We started searching for him, but he had completely disappeared. We could not find him whatsoever. Finally, we spotted him by some hammocks. On our way over there, we were cut off my a rather large woman.

"Oh, you're having a much better time with your leg than I am with mine!" she says

Of course, I did a quick scan to see if this woman was an amputee. She wasn't. She did have on a knee brace or something, so fair enough. Oh, and by the way. This woman was from some other country. I could not pick out the accent she had.  But then she goes on.

"Oh but yours is completely gone! Choppity chop! My friend has both of her legs amputated at her hip! Choppity choppity chop!"

At this point, I am thinking..."What." I mean, I'm really chill and relaxed about my amputation and making amputee jokes. I really am. But this was so...out there that I didn't know what to say! She goes on talking to Ashleigh and I for a long time, saying "Choppity chop!" about six more times. Then it got a bit creepy.

"Anyway, want to go for a swim?" she asks

Praise the Lord for my dear Ashleigh. She immediately says "Oh look!! A baby pig!" We turned around, and sure enough, there was a baby boar and his mommy walking around on the beach. After this diversion, we start trying to escape this awkward conversation. But she asks us again. "Want to go for a swim?" She seemed rather eager, which was not too comfortable. I know this woman meant well, but I didn't know her, and I wasn't about to go swimming in the ocean with a stranger who seemed to have an obsession over my leg. I had to say something....I couldn't just avoid her again.

So I said "Oh, you know, I would love to, but we are actually looking for someone!"
"Oh, who?!" (Umm...creepy.)
"I'm looking for my....brother."

Now I don't have a brother. But if I say "I'm looking for a friend" it doesn't sound as eager, and it makes it seem obvious I'm trying to avoid her. So I just made it sound like it was more urgent by saying I had to find my brother. Besides, Hutson and I could easily pass for siblings.

"Oh! Your brother! Is he an amputee too?" Because apparently, amputated limbs are genetic. It can be, but not in this case.

"No! He's my....half brother. But yeah...I have to search for him. But thanks for the offer! Maybe we will see you around!"

She finally relinquished us. We found Hutson a few seconds later, and made our request to bury him.

He said yes.

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!

Hello everyone! Not really a huge post today, but I REALLY need your help.  I was selected as a finalist for a scholarship, and need as many votes as I can get so I can be a final contender for the scholarship money. Please vote for my video, and share with all your friends, family, neighbors, enemies, and everyone you know! My video is the one with the Eagle as the thumbnail. Thank y'all so much!

http://www.acu.edu/admissions/liveup/social/#finalists

Stuck in a Tree

Hello you lovely people you! I am so sorry that I have not written in....well...approximately 134 days. So here is what's going on in my life. It's my senior year of High School, and I have been busy busy busy! I gave up my mascot position to let someone else enjoy the fun of romping around in an eagle suit in 100 degree weather. I am taking fun classes, and boring classes. I'm the president of the Big Sister's Club at school, where an upperclassmen girl takes a Freshman girl under her wing and mentors her.....Oh! I was accepted to everywhere I applied to college! That's a plus! In the mean time, I have been applying for scholarships and whatnot.

I'm getting a new prosthesis! That's always fun. It's like Christmas, but better! Do any of you have a vacuum system? That's the type of leg I am getting, and I'm kind of nervous about having a different type of leg since I'm so used to the pin-lock system.

Ok so here's the fun stuff. I have discovered geocaching. For those of you who don't know what geocaching is, you have an app on your phone or tablet, and you can view where all the geocaches are. One will be in a tree or something, and there is a log in it and you write down that you were there, and if it's a larger geocache you can sometimes leave something behind. Yes, it sounds nerdy. Yes, it is nerdy. Yes, it is for people who have WAY too much time on their hands and nothing better to do. It has been so much fun though! However, I would not geocache if your prosthesis does not fit well. Here is why:

I was with two friends, and we were behind a wall in a really branchy area with trees and sticks and tons of bugs. I was looking for the geocache all over the place! So I thought that it may be in a tree. So I'm standing on a bunch of logs, trying to look up this tree to find this geocache. I finally find a good branch to step up on and get into the tree. Well, I step up and get on the branch (yay for upper body strength), and all of a sudden, I feel the all-to-familiar slip. My leg has fallen off. So now, I'm sitting up in a tree, with no leg. My friends are nowhere to be seen, and I was alone. To make things worse, there was no geocache in the tree. I call out to my friends, and they finally come around the corner. Of course, since my friends are so loving and caring, they just stand there, look at my leg, and look at me. Then they laugh. After about three minutes of my friends in hysterics, they finally retrieve my leg for me, and give it to me. I successfully get down from the tree. Of all places to be stuck without a leg, I never thought that a tree would be one of them. But then again, I am Emily, and too many unexpected things happen to me.

And we never found the geocache. :(


Well. That's the adventure of the geocache. There will probably be many more stories to come. I am sorry about not writing as often as I could, but hey, I'm a senior and doing important life impacting things.

OH! I've been meaning to do this for a while now. I'm on social media! If you want to follow me and hear about my daily shenanigans on a day to day basis, feel free to follow me on Twitter! @eparker95

And if you can't read, don't want to read, or just like pictures I'm also on Instagram! @pemily95

And now....the big one. Ask.fm This is a website where you can ask me a question, any question anonymously, and I will answer it within 24 hours.  ask.fm/pemily95

One more thing. I told y'all I've been applying for scholarships and stuff. Well here's one of the big scholarships I applied for. It's a video! I hope y'all enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adshy2_CFjo



MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Flying as an Amputee

Hello everyone! I hope that your summer is awesome. I have had a pretty adventurous summer so far, but alas, today marked the two week countdown until school starts back up. After I finished crying, I decided that I probably needed to update y'all! I have been thinking about a new post, and I thought "Hey. It's summertime. A lot of people travel!" So this post is about why traveling is such a pain.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE traveling. I have been very blessed to have the privilege to travel to several different places. I've been to England, France, all over the United States, and Canada. My family tries to get up to Canada every year for our family vacation. It's always nice weather up there, and the Canadian Rockies are absolutely gorgeous. So, of course, we went to Canada this year.

We got up and went to the airport VERY early in the morning. After dealing with some not-so-friendly United Airline Representatives, we of course had to go to security.

So as we all know, the TSA has gotten very uptight over these past few years. I am happy that they have such strict rules, and I love knowing that I am safe on an airplane. However, I can live without the attitude that they sometimes have. Also because of the rules, you either have to be porn-ified or molested if you make the beeper go off, so being an amputee with a metal stick as/inside your prosthesis it's gonna detect it and you are going to be sexually assaulted.

Since I don't like being touched by a complete stranger, I have just decided that it is much easier to take off my leg and let it go through the scanner. However, I always get in trouble when I do this. Some version of the following conversation happens:

Me: pops off leg 
TSA: What are you doing?! Put that back on!
Me: No, I'm fine. I would rather hop through than have the pat down.
TSA: You need to have the pat down!
Me: I don't want the pat down. Can I please hop through now?
TSA: lets me hop through  You know you don't have to do that. You can just deal with the pat down.
Me: I don't want the pat down. It's just an inconvenience. Thank you though.

After the cranky TSA lady finally calms down, I wait for my leg. The fun part about the lengthy process is watching the person's face who is manning the screen. When they see a leg come through, they always look extremely confused. It's the best! One of the perks of having one leg is getting to mess with the TSA agents.

Anyway, I finally get my leg back and I go on my way through the airport. Up until recently, I didn't realize I qualify for pre-boarding, soooo WINNING!  Seriously though. All amputees out there, USE IT. It's so amazing. Sometimes the flight attendants will give you a drink to enjoy while the plane is boarding.

After everyone is situated and as comfortable as possible, the flight takes off. (Unless you are flying United. Then you'll have to sit through an hour delay.)  I don't know if I'm the only one who has this problem, but my knee gets irritated after a couple of hours of sitting. If you know all your seat mates, it's fine to just pop off the prosthesis, but it's not really socially acceptable to pop it off next to a stranger.....anyway, the flight takes however long to get to its destination. That moment the pilot turns off the seatbelt sign, EVERYONE IN THE PLANE STANDS UP AT THE SAME TIME. Have you ever noticed that? It happens! Just watch. Then you have to go through the awkward line that takes a long time and you are really close to each other....then you get out into the terminal. Then you head off to your travels....and hopefully have a fun time.


I hope y'all enjoyed this post! Please feel free to comment and give any feedback that you wish!

Dislocations and Flying Bras

Tis the season to be HOT. Yes, that's right. Summer is officially upon us. I do love 110 degree weather and 99% humidity. But hey. That's Texas for you. Anyway, I finally got out of school four weeks ago, and I have already managed to hurt myself. But let's back up a little bit.

Last year (summer 2012) I became a camp counselor for MD Anderson's pediatric camp for patients and their siblings ages 5-12. I used to be a camper at Camp Star Trails, and I remember how much fun I had as a camper. I wanted to come back and love on the kids as they got to leave the hospital or any treatment behind for a week and just have fun. Being a camp counselor is one of the best things I have ever experienced. I get upset over minute things, but these kids go through things that I can't even imagine, and they still have a smile on their face. It's amazing. They are such an inspiration. 

This year I wanted to come back and be a counselor again. I got there, made some new friends, played ultimate games of Spoons, and about a thousand games of Uno. The week went by fast, and it was finally the last day. Of course, after running after ten year olds for a week, you get pretty exhausted. The kids had pretty much all left and all I could think about was getting in the car and going home to my soft bed. Unfortunately, that all went downhill. 

Since I am in fact an amputee, walking long distances is sometimes difficult for me. The facilities that Camp Star Trails uses has golf carts on hand to help any kids or counselors who may need to ride instead of walk. There was another amputee there, a camper so I had a deal with her cabin where I would give her rides to  her activity, then I would go to mine, and I would pick her back up. All that to say that my cabin had a golf cart. So my three fellow counselors and I drove back to our cabin and did some last minute cleaning and packing. Our plan was to put everything on the cart and drive back up to the gathering hall to put it in the cars and such. We parked the cart at our cabin, took the key, and went inside. Ten minutes later, we go back outside and the cart is gone! I am still not sure how this happened since I had the key around my neck on a lanyard. We had to walk up to the gathering hall. 

It's not that far of a walk, and I didn't really NEED the cart, it was just nice to have for the longer distances. We were walking back up on the sidewalk, rolling and carrying our bags along the way. 

Let's do an equation here. 

Rolling suitcase + Klutzy Emily + a backpack = Bad plan. 

I think we have established by now I am a klutz. A huge one. It's pretty bad. So anyway, we were walking along and I basically tripped over suitcase. Normally, I would have gotten up, laughed, and dealt with the teasing that would probably come along with it. But not this time. No....my body had other plans in mind. What I think happened is my prosthetic twisted or something. Anyway, I was walking, I tripped, and next thing I knew I was in excruciating pain. This pain is unexplainable. It was worse than amputation. I was screaming. The camp doctor came over and tried to figure out what was wrong, but felt as if he shouldn't try to fix anything since he isn't an orthopedic. I completely understand that now, but at the time, I was not happy. I remember him trying to ask me what was wrong with my leg and me replying with something along the lines of "I don't know. You tell me. You're the doctor!" Not one of my prouder moments, but I get pretty sassy when I'm in pain. 

About this time, I have attracted many people by my screaming. My three fellow counselors, camp staff, the doctor, the head nurse, and a few more counselors were all standing over me as I sat on the sidewalk, holding my nub. I was able to pop my prosthesis off, which is good. So, two male counselors came over with a golf cart to take me to the parking lot and put me in my parents car. (They had thankfully just arrived.) The nurse gave me 800 mg of Advil and a Tylenol 3. (Extreme pain killers.) They didn't really help that much though. I needed something more heavy duty. 

Now on a side note, I'm an optimistic person. I look ahead, and I always try to find the bright side to everything. So here's the glimmering thing about THIS story. These two male counselors were EXTREMELY attractive. They picked me up and put me on the back of the golf cart and put me in the back of my parents car. 

Too bad I couldn't enjoy it. But if these counselors happen to stumble upon this one day, I would like to say thank you for your help. Y'all are great.  

Ok so back to this tale of woe. My parents got to the car, and decided to take me to the Emergency Room in Katy. My parents are friends with an orthopedic, and he recommended this place. The only problem was that Katy was an hour or so away, and I knew I couldn't handle the car ride. I begged my parents to take me to nearest Emergency Room. Finally, they did. But honestly, they might as well have taken me to Katy. We get to the ER. They give my dad a wheelchair with no help getting out of the car. My parents had to get me out, but it was extremely painful. I'm pretty sure I woke up people in China with my screams. My dad had a ringing in his ear for an hour. We get in there, and by now I can't handle the pain any longer. My mom had to convince the nurses that I needed to be handled immediately. They took me back, took of my gel liner that was still on, and we saw this: 

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET SICK OR DIE OR SOMETHING ELSE HORRIBLE DO NOT LOOK AT PICTURE! 

Finally, we get put into a little alcove with a curtain and the doctor comes in. He takes one look at my knee and looks absolutely confused. After a couple of X Rays, he finally says that it is time to put the knee back in place. He goes over there and starts massaging it back in, but it still hurts like crazy. He said that the knee had "minimal improvement" which is doctor speak for he had no idea what he was doing. You would think he had never seen a dislocation before in his life! It was nuts! Four hours later, my mom called another orthopedic doctor at my regular hospital. THAT doctor got on the phone with the ER doctor and walked him through what to do. Basically what happened was the doctor didn't make me straighten out my nub before he started to relocate it. I am still in a terrible amount of pain at this point, and I'm tired and sick of being in the hospital. The ER doctor goes over to my nub and takes the pillow out from under it without any indication what he was doing, and it was painful! So again, my sassy pants took over and I told him I was going to need a bit more warning before he did anything. I think that made him angry because he kinda walked away and didn't come back for ten minutes. After he was done throwing himself a pity party, he came back over and gently took the pillow away. He asked me to straighten out the nub as much as I could. I straightened it out pretty far, and I thought I couldn't go any further. He looked at the nurse and told her to "pull the stump out."

At this point, what goes through my mind is "No one is pulling my stump."  So I gritted my teeth, straightened it out a few more inches and then I felt a POP and instant relief. The doctor was dumfounded. He was looking at my knee, looked at me, and looked at my knee again. "What did you do?!" he asked.

"I straightened out my knee more...."

"What...but...how...." were his only words

My mom had been texting my sisters the entire time while we were at the hospital, and she of course let them know when it relocated. My sister and her boyfriend had been praying only a couple of minutes before it relocated. This is absolute proof that prayer works, and that God was watching over me that day.

After X Rays, we found out that my knee had been fully relocated. The doctor gave me a brace to put my leg in, and they sent me off. Unfortunately, three doses of morphine and six doses of other painkillers don't exactly blend well together in the stomach. I was sick for the next two days. But that's a nasty story that we don't have to go into detail about.

After we got home, my mom called my doctor at MD Anderson and asked him what we should do next. I was ordered to have an MRI on the nub. I have had several MRIs before, so this was no problem for me.

For whatever reason though, I had a complete Dory moment and forgot that I was supposed to take off my bra   certain undergarments that have a wire. I realized this as I was going into the back to get my MRI taken, and I asked the male technician about it. He said I had to take it off, but I could do it in the back room. We get to the room, he steps out, and I start taking off this undergarment. Now, for those of you that do not know, an MRI machine is basically a gigantic magnet. So when this undergarment with a metal wire was taken off and put on the table next to me, it flew onto the machine. This magnet is very strong, and it took some muscle to get it off. But luckily I was able to, and didn't have to alert the technician of any embarrassing moments.

So here's the diagnosis. I have to be on crutches while wearing my leg for 6 weeks.....it's just a minor setback.

Have a great summer everybody!

E

Jaws

My U.S. History class is in the middle of our final project before the end of the school year. The project is called "I Love the Decades". Each group is assigned a five year period. For the project you are required to make a video about the decade, including events, politics, and all the historical stuff. Then the fun part comes in. You also have to add in the movies and music of the decade as well.

My group of six was assigned 1971-1975. We did all of the historical stuff, then we started to add in the fun aspect of the project. Movies. Of course, when my group found out that the movie Jaws was made in 1975, they freaked out. After much begging and pleading, I finally agreed to be the victim of a shark attack.

Yeah. You can see where this is going.

When it is springtime in Texas, it starts to warm up. It had been in the 90s all week, so we decided that it would be a good week to film this shark attack scene at my friends house. However, the one day we decide to film the winds turned and it ended up being 60 degrees outside. (I know that's not cold for some people, but I am Texan.)

Anyway, we were able to get most of the group together, minus a couple of people. We were at Danielle's house, so she got dibs on playing the shark. Morgan (y'all have heard of her in previous posts) was my friend I was "sun tanning" with, and Ashleigh was filming.

We begin to film, and it is already pretty cold outside. Danielle gets in the pool, and starts to swim around in a shark floaty. Morgan and I are out on the side of the pool, tanning away, when suddenly my leg gets "eaten off"  I was not expecting this next part to happen.

When Danielle came and "bit my leg off" I got dragged into the pool. It was freezing. I started to flail and scream and shake and shiver. It made for a pretty great video, but the reaction you see is real. Not acting.

My friends are so loving and caring, and they wanted to help me with my moment of shock! Right after we filmed more of me in the pool, dying and getting eaten and whatnot.  By the end of the 20 minutes, my lips were blue, my nub was numb, and I couldn't feel my fingers. Finally, after warming up, we were able to get everything together.

Here are some screenshots of the video:

Me getting eaten 

Me dead

                                                   My reaction when I first hit the water

                                                              Me getting eaten again