MikeAllenWrites

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Thanks for sharing your story and keep up the good work. Keep at it and I'm sure others will notice your abilities.

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Thanks I hope so.

Thanks

Glenn Stout is a Red Sox Historian, an author, and the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing series. Today Mr. Stout tweeted out an article that I wrote on Friday about Dont'a Hightower saving his life and my life in the F-5 Tuscaloosa Tornado 4/27/2011 then taking me with him to the Green Room at the NFL Draft 4/26/2012. Mr. Stout's tweet simply said "Good young writer; fascinating story" with a link but it feels great to be recognized for words by someone like Mr. Stout who chooses the best sports writing year after year and knows a thing or two about it. Anyway, I thought maybe you might want to see the article he thought something of as people on here have encouraged me with my writing and I definitely appreciate all that support. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

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Know your limits, bro. If I was born without fingers I wouldn't strive to be a piano player

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Okay I completely understand that one but I already wrote and published a book for Rare Disease Day 2014. To publish a book on my own was tough, but totally worth it.

Again, I completely understand why you say what you say about the friendship thing but I prefer to accomplish life goals on my own without the financial assistance of others. Again, I created the post seeking advice about stress. Everyone typically says stuff like "indulge in physical activity" or whatever and I just wanted to see what people would say here.

That's an excellent idea about raising $ for high schools. I just want to add real quick that I am not looking for equal outcomes, or to get "large #s of Blacks and Mexicans hired at companies like Google and Twitter."

What I am trying to do is play a part in making sure equal opportunities exist for the smartest and most passionate. My ambition of all those muffins may be unrealistic but we'll see. Silicon Valley is a big place. I'm speaking to more than Google and Twitter.

The money I made from my book is not life changing money, and that's completely fine because I did not write and publish a book to become a big name author. I am not the first person, or the last person, to go through a tough time in life. I only wanted others to share advice of what they did during a tough time in their life. Many here have shared great advice. Friends and family do help me out, of course, but I don't take handouts. Again, all I wanted was experience on how to deal with stress and uncertainty. Thanks.

Hotel to hotel off Hotwire.com 4 days at a time out a suitcase when I can afford a hotel room isn't the same thing as consistently staying in the same room of a place. Think what you want. Asking is better then wondering but not saying anything anyway.

Haha that made me laugh ShermaTxTiger. I do not need to be on disability, but I appreciate the advice.

I don't think everyone wants a muffin haha if that dream of the muffin thing working out ever actually happened then I would donate the rest of the muffins and the money not used for the muffins to food banks and shelters.

The population of Palo Alto is 66,642 and the population of Menlo Park is 33,071 so one muffin for every person would be 99,713 muffins and that would be Silicon Valley or what I know Silicon Valley to be.

I'm not sure what the sink joke meant ?

A little advice would be appreciated. I am living with the inability to write (dysgraphia), to do arithmetic (dyscalculia), to see or feel fingers (finger agnosia) and to tell left from right (left-right disorientation). The name for this is Gerstmann Syndrome, a brain disease people acquire after bleeding in the brain during a stroke or traumatic head injury. Doctors are surprised to see I was born with Gerstmann Syndrome, and no one knows why.

I left home for college with dreams of law school after pouring everything into tutoring, physical therapy, occupational therapy and class from inside special education classrooms. My parents thought hard work, and a college degree could get me to my goals and beyond every time. So in high school, I applied. When I got in, I became roommates with three guys who ended up making it to the NFL. They helped me do what I could not do because of disability, and one of them tucked me beneath a bathroom sink and saved my life in a F-5 tornado. The road with PTSD and Gerstmann Syndrome has been a rocky one. Blue collar jobs are tough when you can't use your hands. White collar jobs are tough when you're bad at math. I've tried writing books. I've tried advocating for rare disease. My dream is to bring 99,713 muffins to Silicon Valley and throw a big milk and muffin party raising awareness for Silicon Valley’s tech diversity problem, but that's a long shot.

This hasn't been my year. I've spent most of it hotel to hotel and sometimes homeless. I just want to know how people deal with stress. I know you don't have to have it all figured out to keep moving forward, but what are the ways you deal with stress and uncertainty in life on the journey?