Day to Day Life and Dialysis

The blog of a 26 year-old dialysis and liver patient in Memphis, Tennessee giving a day to day (or week to week... or whenever she feels like telling you) recount of the ups and downs of life at the moment.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Why do they get all of the attention?

I was flipping through the channels lasat week and stooped on Court TV to see what was on. (I am a Forensic Files fanactic). But there was some show about celebrities and their so called "trials and tribulations." Anyway, they were doingt a story about Pamela Anderson and how she is "bravely" dealing with Hepatitis C. It amazed me that these people were making such a big deal about this one person dealing with a disease when everyday people deal with things like that on a daily basis. I immediately thought of some media tinged caste system created for celebrities and the everyday individual. We don't receive commendations for making it to the next day. We don'ty have people calling us telling us how brave we are in the face of this "adversity." We don't have reporters at our door asking how we are doing today. There is no documentation of our struggles. No one cares that some of us can't afford the medications required to get us through the next hour, day, week, month. It amazes me that people make such an event out of celebrities needing transplants, battling cancer, having an incurable disease. Its like things like this are supposed to happen to everyday people because they are within the actual realms of humanity. People deal with these things everyday, and a lot of it is due to the sheer will to survive. Its as if these diseases are not important unless a celebrity is dealing with it. Yes, they are human too, but it makes me feel that most of the world doesn't really care about the things that are going on around them or in their own backyards. I guess it is a bit of the sign of the times. People care more about what is happening in the lives of Britney Spears and Patris Hilton that events that actually affect their lives like Bush vetoing the SCHIP bill that would have given a lot of children access to healtcare (God forbid they should have to go through anything like kidney failure) or the war in Iraq....

Ok... just needed to blow off a little steam... Logically speaking I am damn glad that none of those things exist in the world of the average person. We have strong support in family and friends and that is all we really need. They get us through the days when we don't want to get out of bed. And that there really is no one standing outside our door/window trying to take our picture... I think on most days someone would have gotten hurt for real. And, yes we have a strength to deal with all of this on our own terms and in our own time. I'm sure it's harder for celebrities because everything is documented and people have these unreaslistic expectations about who they are and what they are capable of. They should have no faults, no imperfections simply because they are famous, they are idolized by millions of people worldwide. So, I am thankful that I am me and no one else. I know that I am just as strong, if not stronger, than a lot of people. I told one person that some are better off than me and I am better off that others, so it all balances out somehow. And balance is what its all about in life. I am still learning to balance some things, but I am happy that I can do it on my own and in private.

1 Comments:

  • At 7:17 AM, Blogger Nick said…

    Hello:

    Sorry for taking so long to respond. I really enjoyed my experience at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Most of the coursewok I took while there focused on linguistics, not so much translation and interpretation. I studied T/I primarily in the states (CSULB and SCSI).

    I highly recommend the CSULB program with professor Alexander Rainof. He is one of the leading scholars in the field.

    Hope this helps, feel free to write anytime.

    Nick Arce

     

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