Yesterday, I had the fantastic opportunity to meet a lovely little girl named Julia who has been newly diagnosed with her allergies and has been having a hard time dealing with it. After talking with her mom, we scheduled a day, yesterday, that Julia and I could meet up and get to know each other.
She was shy at first; I remember being shy around strangers when I was her age too, but quickly became a competitive fun-loving girl after we talked about her life while painting a couple of pumpkins teal- in preparation for The Teal Pumpkin Project 2017 thru the FARE organization
After the pumpkins were painted, we sipped on our hot cocoa while our moms chatted and then we went to the park. This was the place where Julia started to truly grow more comfortable around me. She and I are both pretty competitive so we were constantly having races to the next swing set or slide..... She beat me... a lot..
Then on the way home she showed me how incredibly smart she is by constantly solving the Rubiks Cube she brought and no matter how much I scrambled it and tried making it as complex as I could, she always solved it within 2 minutes tops! She knew how impressed I was because she said, "Watch and learn!" in her sassiest tone and continued to solve it in about 30 seconds.
It's hard to imagine this talented young lady is constantly fearful of food and places in general and has anxiety because of it. She is such an amazing young girl and I can't wait to meet with her once more and get to know her even further. It's people like Julia that make me feel really good about what I'm doing and motivate me to keep fighting for a cure against food allergies!
~Katie Manuel