Thursday, September 12, 2013


Jaron Garrison      

9/11/2013

Autobiography

          I was born February 20th 1996 Los Angeles California. The doctors declared that I was a healthy young boy. It wasn’t until much later that they noticed something was wrong. My parents noticed that I was not responding when they asked me to do something. I was also not eating regular food like an average infant would. To find out the reason for this, they took me to a hospital where the doctors claimed that I had a disease called brain attrify. Brain attrify is the deterioration of the brain often caused by a virus. They told my parents that I was not going to survive another year. Upset at what the doctors had told them, they called my aunt who was, and still is, a nurse in the emergency care unit at OHSU, Portland Oregon. She suggested that we move to Portland and talk to some of the doctors there. After the move and after we got settled in my aunt scheduled a meeting with a doctor who specialized in these kinds of situations. After running several genome and blood tests they finally diagnosed me with VCFS or Velo Cardio Facial Syndrome. VCFS is as common as down syndrome but is not well known because it is hard to diagnose. Unlike down syndrome, people with VCFS are missing a huge part of their chromosome, while people with down syndrome have to many. There are a variety of symptoms with VCFS, I just have a very small fraction of them. During my early childhood I struggled with a hearing loss, mild asthma, artery development issues, learning disabilities, weak thought muscles, being underweight, speech issues, and sinus problems. The side affect of this is going in and out of the hospital for almost half my life with the doctors doing many surgeries to repair my symptoms. The last and final surgery was done last year to repair my hearing loss. Now all of the problems are taken care of and I can live a normal life.

          All of these problems contributed to a tough time at school socially and academically. Socially because of my speech and academically because of my learning difference. My first high school was Cleveland High School with about 2500. Then I moved to a smaller private school with 100 students. My third high school is my current school, SOAR.

          I still plan on going to college and getting a job like most people do. Having VCFS isn’t that bad for me because it helped me grow more mature much earlier than most kids. Although it sounds tough, I just think about having fun educating others about it. The more people who know about it, the faster it can be cured.

 
 
 
 

Alana's Autobiography

My Autobiography

Hi my name is Alana Meyer. I was born in Fort Collins Colorado on June 14, 1997. I currently live in Scotts Valley, California. With my mom and dad, Lori and Mike.

My mom does not work at the moment, but she is trying to find a job within the National Parks System or the State Parks System. My dad works as a college professor at the University of Santa Clara in the philosophy department.

I attend the Academy at Soar in North Carolina and am in 10th grade. The subjects that I am currently studying are; Geometry, English 10, Environmental Science, Life Skills, Adventure Skills, Literature and Language Arts 10, and U.S. History.

When I am at home I enjoy hanging out with my friends and Playing Minecraft. I also enjoy surfing and skateboarding. My friends and I have Minecraft parties where we play Minecraft and eat chips and salsa. I also enjoy doing art whether it be painting, sculpture making, drawing, and just being creative. Another way that I enjoy is nature. I like to backpack, canoe, rock climb, hike, swim, raft, and much more.


            The way that I got my nickname is when I went to summer camp is when I rode a wave like a frog all the way in. Since my favorite frog of all time is Kermit, my friends just started calling me Kermit and the name stuck.   

treys life story

Treys autobiography


My name is Trey Eldon Mitchell. My first name means three also I am also the third Eldon in my family. I am about 5’5 and 116 pounds. I was born in Tver, Russia in  1998. I am now living in White Pine, Tennessee. Where I live it feels like a happy place. My birthday is on April 7, 1998 and I was adopted on December 16, 1998.

      My parents are Eldon and Pam Mitchell. My dad was a dentist in the army and my mom was teacher in Germany. I am a student at Soar. Soar is an out of the box school. In the past school I was in 8th grade I learned a lot and worked on homework at school. I also played basketball when it was in season at my school. When I did play basketball I would do Karate in the evening. My nickname at my old school was bird. I also like to listen to country music.