Telling the Nem's

Hey guys! So I mentioned before that next year in college I will be part of a special writing scholarship group called the Nems. For about a few weeks now I have been connected to the 9 other students who will be part of this group through a facebook group. It was so nice to meet them all (over faceook)! They all look so nice and of course they are great writers. I had been debating though how to deal with telling them about my TS. I am going to be in at least one class with all of them for 4 years so I figured they should really know that I have Tourette's. I have finally decided to tell my fellow Nems about my TS through the facebook group last night and I am so glad I did. This is the message I sent:

"Hey guys! Any Marc Elliott fans out there? Marc now speaks to high schools about tolerance and his Tourette's Syndrome. He is really awesome, but I may be a bit biased since I too have Tourette's :P. Also this can be my little "heads up" to you guys since we'll all be in a class together. Having Tourette's just means I have these things called tics, which are involuntary movements (like twitches) and sounds. My tics aren't very severe and I don’t swear as a tic, and in fact only 5% of people with Tourette's actually do swear. Truthfully most of the time my friends and I just have fun and joke around with it :) 

So, if you haven't heard Marc speak, you should check out this video! And if you have any questions about Tourette's, feel free to ask. I really don’t mind and I am pretty much an expert at answering questions about it at this point :Phttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmduvB5-58E&list=FLcHlIBpR2-cRPZShJjxK0xA&index=2&feature=plpp_video" 

I think I worded it pretty well and so far I have gotten two comments on the post. One guy in the group said he has always respected people with Tourette's and another girl thanked me for sharing.  So that's a pretty good response so far I think considering I only sent it last night! It's a big weight off my shoulders because now it's one less class I have to worry about telling. Now when I go into the class and meet the group of Nems in person I don't have to deal with as many of the initial stares or comments and I don't have to worry about explaining Tourette's too much for the most part. I may have to deal with more questions from them (which I really don't mind) but I don't have to deal with that awkward first stage of "when do I tell them?" "how do I tell them" etc. anymore! Of course I do have to deal with the rest of my classes (especially the smaller ones) and with my roommate, but at least I have one part taken care of now!