Each semester, the International Essential Tremor Foundation presents four scholarships to students with essential tremor. The scholarships represent hope for the future, and provide support to these students during a pivotal time in their lives. As part of the scholarship application process, each applicant is asked to write an essay that answers the question, “How has essential tremor affected my life?” The following essay is from one of our fall 2018 scholarship recipients.
By Graham Gaddis,
University of Tennessee
As the sixth child in a family of 16 children I am sometimes overlooked, but if we met for a personal interview you would learn how capable I am.
In the shadows and in the quiet, I have found an identity, and much of this identity has developed from facing head-on the difficulties of living with essential tremor (ET). I realize that having essential tremor has actually strengthened my resolve to tackle life’s challenges and achieve my personal goals.
The process of living with essential tremor has also enabled me to focus on my genuine priorities. I don’t have the time or the energy to be pressured to be someone else or simply please someone else. As a result of ET, I have learned to stand in my own skin and really pursue my own interests. For example, I am the fifth kid to go to college in my immediate family. My father, aunt and uncle are physicians. I have three sisters who are registered nurses and my brother is studying engineering. Therefore, most people thought I would enter college in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, math). But my future dreams include farming and food production. I have chosen to major in a field that is completely new to my family, but that I am sincerely passionate about. I think this boldness to pursue a degree unfamiliar to my large extended family has developed as I found courage dealing with my essential tremor.
It has not been easy to struggle daily to spread peanut butter on my sandwich bread, assemble a bookcase with 80 screws dropping them over and over again, or have to practice, in private, my penmanship so that it would be legible. I don’t really like that I spill a drink if it is too full. These things are not “fun”, but in the scope of the greater things in life I can still do everything that God has called me to do. I can shower those whom I love with kindness. I can contribute to my community and have a legacy of faithfulness. I can be sympathetic to the trials and difficulties others face and help in their time of need.
I know I can walk through the challenges of having essential tremor and I can still find joy in all of the areas of life that really matter.
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Interested in supporting students with ET during their educational journey? Make a donation to the ET scholarship fund online.