College Student Bounces Back From a Big Dis
The hardest thing Channing Barker learned in college is how hard learning itself can be.
Channing, 19, was diagnosed at 16, and credits the medical guidance, scholarship and cheering-up she got from the National MS Society with helping her reach the University of Arkansas.
“I would not be walking today if it were not for the Society. I would be flat on my behind in a bed somewhere because I would be at a loss for what to do,” she said.
Almost everyone else in her life has been equally supportive, from the university’s diversity office to her sorority sisters. (Dozens of them are nursing majors and vie for the privilege of giving Channing her nightly injections.) And when Channing told her professors about her fatigue and cognitive issues so they wouldn’t think she was lazy or loopy, most offered tutoring, extra time for exams — anything she needed.
All but one.
“I was just asking her to understand what was going on, to listen to me, and she didn’t have that in her heart. I’d never had that happen to me before with anybody, especially a teacher," Channing recalled.
Rather than make a federal case out of it, Channing made a very grownup decision: Sometimes, moving forward means walking away.
“I dropped the class and my life was so much better!” she said.
After falling into and climbing out of a depression over the matter, Channing drew a positive conclusion from the experience:
“It taught me we have to work harder to get the word out there,” she said. “We still need to fight for this disease because people are in much worse situations than I am. I just had one crummy teacher. She hurt my feelings, but she motivated me even more to be an advocate. I can’t assume everybody knows about MS. I can’t sit around waiting for a cure. We have to be active about it.”
Channing said she’s taking a sabbatical from dating so she can conserve strength for classes, but she knows she wants to marry and have a family. Mister Right will be the guy who hears her confide she has MS, acknowledges that he understands the challenges that lie ahead, and replies: “So?”
Such guys, evidently, exist. Recently an ROTC cadet contacted Channing, explained that his mother lives with MS, and asked her to help him organize the university’s first MS group.
“I was so excited!” Channing said. “It was kind of how I felt leaving the National Conference: ‘I have an edge, we’re going to stop MS!’”