Second Chances...

It's not a big secret that I SUCKED at keeping up with this blog, but today I'm going to start new and try to really keep up with this! There were no real reasons for the lack of blogging, but now I'm becoming more open and involved with the National MS Society and I have more to share.

Recently, I registered online to become an MS advocate. I've gotten e-mails from the National MS Society for years about becoming an advocate. The first time I was really excited about signing up until I realized I had to watch a video, which was fine the issue was I was on my way home from the beach that day. To be honest, I didn't contact anyone or really do anything to see if I could work it out, I just let it go. Over the years since I've been diagnosed, I have slowly become more open about my disease and able to talk about it without fighting tears or tears just streaming down my face without being able to control it.

I felt that this time when I got the e-mail about becoming an MS advocate it was just time. I filled the questionnaire out and submitted it, not putting too much thought into it. Well, let's just say if I had known what I was actually getting myself into I may not have pressed send. Unbeknownst to me, in order to become an advocate there was a process that involved discussing me and my involvement among the top members of the Government Relations Committee and an interview.

I'm not much for public speaking, I have done it, but it's not my favorite thing to do. (Just FYI I don't consider teaching to be public speaking, that's totally different. Although I would sometimes try my jokes on them, almost all teachers are hidden comedians). I've really only spoken about my MS story once before in front of a group of people. It was in August 2013 at a mix and mingle event hosted by the MS society in order to bring the members of all the events together. Everyone said it went well, but I felt I sounded nervous and it seemed really quick.

Even though I do get nervous about public speaking, I've agreed to tell my story again, but this time it'll probably be a bigger audience. Over the summer, after getting my car I started looking into the different speciality license plates. Of course my first thought was an LSU one, but I started looking at the different plates and saw how many organizations had speciality plates. Louisiana didn't have a National MS Society license plate, so I went to google to look and see if other states had them. Once I found that a few other states had MS license plates, I asked the two people who handle the government relations in regards to MS.

I wasn't the only person who wanted or had wondered about an MS license plate. Once I realized that speciality license plates had to be passed as a bill I called my local senator. His secretary was very helpful and he gladly said he'd write the bill for us! Then, I sent all the information to the head of the government relations committee. That was in August, now that Congress is in session we're in the process of getting it passed. Here's where the public speaking comes into play, since I started this they want me to give "testimony" and tell them why I wanted this license plate. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter too much what I say because seriously why hate on something like that? But, it spreads awareness to more people which is one of my main goals.

Since being diagnosed with MS it's been a big part of my life. My sister and I have been a part of the MS Walk committee for three years, participated in the walk for four years, and volunteered at the Vintage Affair (formally the Renaissance Fest) for two years. Once the MS license plates are in production, it'll be another source of fundraising and it'll raise awareness at the same time. Raising awareness for MS has become my goal and raising money helps the society with it's continued research.