I can't write about this summer without writing about my friend, Jackie Becker.
Jackie is a fellow health assistant of mine, and that is where the similarity between the two of us ends. She's only 20 years old, and she's currently studying for her RN from a small liberal arts college in Ohio. She and I spend a lot of time together, because in all honesty, she drives most people up the wall for one reason: she has ADHD.
Disclaimer: I have never spent any amount of time with anyone with ADD or ADHD. I have seen kids who have been diagnosed with it, and I pretty much run the other way. Having grown up a musician, concentration has been a key component of any success in my life, and I have no concept of how anyone with ADHD even functions. ADHD scares me.
Well let me tell you. I have definitely been missing something in my life, because Jackie is my favorite work colleague this summer. She is the most interesting, exciting, spontaneous friend to have.
Let me tell you about a few of our encounters:
The first time we went hunting for non-compliant campers, I went with her so that she could learn the lay of the land on Interlochen's sprawling campus. I figured with a few landmark reminders and visits to the same place a couple of times, she would have it all down.
A week later, I was still walking all over campus with her, because she couldn't remember where anything was. But I didn't mind, because having a conversation with Jackie over the 2-3 hours that we were trolling for those non-compliant campers was like having a conversation with Doug from Up.
We would be talking about things either funny or serious, when all of a sudden, I would have absolutely no idea what she was talking about. In the five second pause of a conversation (or in the five seconds I would have to say something), her mind would have made 20 tangental connections to something else in her life. And she would assume that I would somehow be privy to those connections and would know exactly what she was talking about. And this was when she was on her ADHD meds.
When she ran out of her meds, and her pharmacy hadn't sent them yet...because she had forgotten to follow-up on the message that she had left them over a week earlier....she was ADHD times a million.
She can't function in the health center when other people are talking. Or when doctors are telling her what to do when the nurses are talking. Or she can't talk when the phone is ringing. Or she starts to look up something on the computer, and she can't remember what she's looking up because she gets distracted by someone saying something (possibly to her, or more probably not).
Too, when she gets overloaded with stress or noise, she snaps. She barks at whoever is telling her what to do. And she starts swearing.
Oh my gosh, my life has been such a ride these past three weeks with her. As it turns out, I love having her around. For some reason, I have become some kind of anchor in her daily storm of events. I can see when she needs just a calm voice to focus on, or I can see when she needs to get out and walk for a bit. Or, I see that she needs a bit of a break from everything so I sit down and eat breakfast (even though I've never done this over the six years of working here), and she sits down with me to talk for a few minutes. And the best part about her is that she keeps me laughing. We laugh, and laugh, and laugh.
She's actually quite amazing physically. She used to run track in high school, and she maintains a really active life style. She usually works a split shift meaning she has eight free hours in the middle of the day to do whatever she wants. While the rest of us prefer to lounge in front of the fan watching Netflix, she rides a bus for miles to find a bike trail that she then bikes for miles to then board the bus again before donning her uniform for the evening. Or, she heads out and runs in the heat of day. She doesn't care how far or for how long--she just runs. As it turns out, exercise is her best friend. She burns a lot of the pent-up anxiety and frustration while exercising, and it helps her focus for the rest of the day. It's really brilliant how she doesn't just depend on drugs to help herself.
And she is so kind. She covered the entire day that I was down in Ann Arbor, and she didn't ask for any repayment.
And this weekend, her grandfather is dying, and she couldn't stand the thought of him dying by himself so she's going to see him. And she hugs the campers when they feel badly. She even crawled underneath the health center porch when a camper's earring fell through the boards...and there were a million spiders and slugs and other creepy crawlies down there. She worries about everyone.
Even when she admires the pen that I keep clipped to my ID and I give her a new pen for herself, she doesn't bring it back to work, but takes it home to use for her homework, hoping that a nicer pen will give her better handwriting. She has a heart of gold.
Jackie is a fellow health assistant of mine, and that is where the similarity between the two of us ends. She's only 20 years old, and she's currently studying for her RN from a small liberal arts college in Ohio. She and I spend a lot of time together, because in all honesty, she drives most people up the wall for one reason: she has ADHD.
Disclaimer: I have never spent any amount of time with anyone with ADD or ADHD. I have seen kids who have been diagnosed with it, and I pretty much run the other way. Having grown up a musician, concentration has been a key component of any success in my life, and I have no concept of how anyone with ADHD even functions. ADHD scares me.
Well let me tell you. I have definitely been missing something in my life, because Jackie is my favorite work colleague this summer. She is the most interesting, exciting, spontaneous friend to have.
Let me tell you about a few of our encounters:
The first time we went hunting for non-compliant campers, I went with her so that she could learn the lay of the land on Interlochen's sprawling campus. I figured with a few landmark reminders and visits to the same place a couple of times, she would have it all down.
 |
| We walked for MILES in the rain... |
We would be talking about things either funny or serious, when all of a sudden, I would have absolutely no idea what she was talking about. In the five second pause of a conversation (or in the five seconds I would have to say something), her mind would have made 20 tangental connections to something else in her life. And she would assume that I would somehow be privy to those connections and would know exactly what she was talking about. And this was when she was on her ADHD meds.
When she ran out of her meds, and her pharmacy hadn't sent them yet...because she had forgotten to follow-up on the message that she had left them over a week earlier....she was ADHD times a million.
She can't function in the health center when other people are talking. Or when doctors are telling her what to do when the nurses are talking. Or she can't talk when the phone is ringing. Or she starts to look up something on the computer, and she can't remember what she's looking up because she gets distracted by someone saying something (possibly to her, or more probably not).
Too, when she gets overloaded with stress or noise, she snaps. She barks at whoever is telling her what to do. And she starts swearing.
Oh my gosh, my life has been such a ride these past three weeks with her. As it turns out, I love having her around. For some reason, I have become some kind of anchor in her daily storm of events. I can see when she needs just a calm voice to focus on, or I can see when she needs to get out and walk for a bit. Or, I see that she needs a bit of a break from everything so I sit down and eat breakfast (even though I've never done this over the six years of working here), and she sits down with me to talk for a few minutes. And the best part about her is that she keeps me laughing. We laugh, and laugh, and laugh.
 |
| Seriously, look at her calf muscles... and how high she can jump! |
And she is so kind. She covered the entire day that I was down in Ann Arbor, and she didn't ask for any repayment.
And this weekend, her grandfather is dying, and she couldn't stand the thought of him dying by himself so she's going to see him. And she hugs the campers when they feel badly. She even crawled underneath the health center porch when a camper's earring fell through the boards...and there were a million spiders and slugs and other creepy crawlies down there. She worries about everyone.Even when she admires the pen that I keep clipped to my ID and I give her a new pen for herself, she doesn't bring it back to work, but takes it home to use for her homework, hoping that a nicer pen will give her better handwriting. She has a heart of gold.
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| Pen Buddies <3 |
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