Oakland

Sometimes you don't realize how much people change your life or how much you'll miss the people you see everyday until you no longer get to. This is kind of hard to write because as weird as this sounds it's the end of the study and as of right now I'm not sure if I'm ready for it to be. Since I haven't been updating you guys regularly you probably wouldn't know that the study has come to an end because the drug now called Vimizn was approved on February 14, 2014! Which is amazing news right? Yes, it is but with the approval of the drug also means no more traveling with the people I love the most or seeing all the amazing people I met on this journey... It's hard to explain the experience I had with these people because it was really indescribable. 

No one will ever understand what happened there, no one will ever understand how extremely hard it was to have to just stop your everyday routine and go do something that might not have even worked, no will understand what it felt like to see my classmates doing the things I wanted to that I missed out on, no one will ever understand the stress, the tears, the anger, the frustration, and the confusion. No one will ever understand how much everyone in the study sacrificed to be there. It's really one of those things that I can't explain you just had to be there to experience it. If you were there You know.

It's kind of ironic how easy Oakland was for me. When I was there I could really be myself, I knew because when I was there I was happy I felt confident in the things I did and said. I wasn't afraid to speak up and I laughed a ton. Now it sucks to come home and realize that's over for the time being. I'm going to miss going to Oakland and the easiness of it all, I'm going to miss that when I wasn't there I felt missed, I truly and genuinely felt loved and appreciated all the time. I'm really going to miss the easiness and ironically it's been the best time ever. Now don't get me wrong when I say easy because I don't mean easy in the way you may think, going to Oakland every week was everything but easy. What I mean is that the relationships I built with everyone was easy, that it wasn't hard to find my place there. It wasn't hard to fit in and be yourself around everyone. It wasn't just the hospital either it was the taxi drivers, the hotel workers, the doctors, nurses, other families, the flight attendants, the Southwest staff, security, and everyone else that we met along the way. It was like a whole other life, a whole other world that I didn't know could exist. Oakland made me feel like a visitor in my own state, it made me feel like the new kid at school, like I transferred in the middle of the year and everyone already had there clique so there really wasn't a place for me. It was ironic in a way that at the beginning it was the place I dreaded on going to but ended up feeling more at home than any place I've ever been before... Here's the thing I will always miss Oakland and the way things used to be, I will always miss my friends that became family and how comfortable I felt with all of them. I knew that it'd come eventually and leaving Oakland for the last time and going down those white hallways leaving the "basement" for good was probably the saddest moment in my life so far but everything that happened within those two years and the people I got really attached to will always hold a special place in my heart. You guys really changed my life and I really appreciate each and everyone of you. Thank you for everything.