<p>feedback needed
At the age of four I was diagnosed with Tourettes, a condition that most would only link to an embarrassing and uncontrollable tendency to curse. Mine is a mild Tourettes where subtle involuntary movements both cause and are triggered by anxiety. Some of my academic struggles have been caused in part by its constantly lingering presence in the testing arena. I learned the best way for me to manage it in the long run in the most unlikely likely place. </p>
<p>While reading stories to the kids at Monte Verde preschool this mental loop is lifted, bringing serenity and calm that allows me to slip out of the bubble of worry. It is perhaps a peacefulness that many might not be able to appreciate.
As I rest on the cobblestone balcony I lean over the edge to see the faces of smiling children staring up at me in wonder. The kids gather on top of the worn play structure in attempt to get closer to me, yelling my name waving their arms. Looking down I can see the breadth of their world, a sandbox, a slide, and a grass hill that leads to the door of MonteVerde school. Through all of my years of rigorous curriculum, the most valuable knowledge that I possess has come from the mouths of preschoolers. Each summer for the past four years I have worked five days a week at Monte Verde School, a position that I reluctantly complied to take up as a thirteen year old, but one that holds many of my fondest memories. In the alternatively minded Berkeley pre-school, my only job was to play with the kids. In wooden blocks, balls of yarn, and recycled cardboard boxes I realized the pettiness of my worries in school compared to the new planet that we had discovered inside the board games closet using only old boxes and rope.
On my first day as I sat down on the floor in front of the colorfully painted table I saw before me a box of toothpicks, a tube of glue, colored balls of cotton and blank sheets of plain white paper. When I ask one of the kids,what do we do here? Luke reached for the toothpicks, looks up at me and said with a smile Anything you want. Although it may seem cliché and dramatized I have sincerely taken these words to heart. I joined the ultimate Frisbee team as an overweight and nervous freshman, and started in Berkeley Highs first state championship junior year. I have learned to meet internal and external challenges head on, and with an adventurer’s spirit and fortitude.
Kids are not afraid to fail, or burdened by ego; they simply live their dreams as most are unable to. The kids at Monte Verde have taught me to make decisions not based on risk but on reward, striving for exactly what I want to accomplish. Each year my Tourettes become less and less evident, and the idea of stepping outside on my own to achieve what I know that I can achieve brings a chill of excitement.</p>