In the grand scheme of life I am no one important, just someone with a lot of opinions that I have no problem sharing. I am a 24yr old born and raised in the formerly great state of Michigan. Right now we have a lot of lakes and that’s about all we have going for us. I was diagnosed with MS in Oct of 2006 and have been riding this train ever since then. It has been an unexpected trip and by no means a blessing but I’m doing my best to make the most out of it. I live on my own with my dog, Timo who is the cutest little shit ever. When I say alone, yes, I mean alone and I have no problem with this, in fact I probably like it more than I should. I own my own home and I pay all my own bills, like a big girl. Shortly after diagnosis I realized that, while being the most commonly diagnosed, there was little to no materials out there for the twenty somethings with MS. So I took it upon myself to start MS.Understood, the newsletter. That was a great outlet for me. I wrote about 6 issues and realized that while I had a lot of readers, it wasn’t going anywhere. I got a few “fan” letters which told me they loved what I was doing, but frankly its damn hard to run something like that entirely on your own. So I gave it up as much of a bummer as it was. Just after I announced the end of the newsletter, I received a letter from Dana. Dana was bummed she missed the newsletter, but I let her know that if she needed anything she could write me. And write me she did. Dana and I wrote the longest emails in the history of the Internet for a few weeks before I became inspired enough to give MS.Understood another go. I’ve changed platforms, and recruited Dana for some help and I’m really excited to get things going again. And with that MSunderstood was born. I have also gotten rid of some punctuation and changed some capitalization…which doesn’t matter to anyone else as much as it does to me. I am a lover of typography, and while I will typo all over your face, I love every thing that embodies good typography and anything that involves letters. I have my eye on some sweet letter drink coasters, you should buy them for me. I learned a lot in my first year of MS but there were so many things I didn’t initially understand. My goal is that with MSunderstood those newly diagnosed can find a place where they feel less alone. I have never felt “so alone” with my MS, but I do know that until talking to Dana, no one in my life truly could understand, even though they tried. I don’t feel isolated in my disease, but I often feel like there is a fine line between being lazy/complaining and have MS problems. A line that our friends and family often find very fuzzy. I do not know everything about MS but I do know a lot about what I’ve dealt with and also what others go through too. I am not a doctor, a writer, a scientist, a politician, a wife, a mom, or many other things. But I am a patient, an avid reader, a sister, a daughter, a girlfriend, and a friend. While those things may not make me licensed to speak my mind on MS, I sometimes feel more qualified than the people we trust to give us the facts. If you need to stalk me on the internet you can find me here: @Excusemydust