It took years, and great effort from recovering from epilepsy, to finally discover the path that led to my career in sports writing.

One of my earliest memories is sharing a passion for sports with my grandfather. As a young boy, I recall going to Lambeau Field with him and watching the Green Bay Packers training camp. We would talk on the phone about the Packers too. Eventually my sports knowledge outpaced his, and he encouraged me to go into a career that involved sports information.

But I saw another path for myself. I had always enjoyed ancient history, archaeology and, even more, paleontology. I read books and watched documentaries on topics that ranged from Mayan civilization to ancient Egyptian mummies to paleontological evolution.

So in the fall of 2017, as I entered the University of Minnesota as a transfer student, my mind was set on studying anthropology and becoming an archaeologist. I saw a bright future.

What I didn’t foresee were the barriers I would face when a medical diagnosis abruptly ended that plan. I also didn’t foresee how my passion for sports would become so important to my path through those obstacles.

After high school, I had done well at North Hennepin Community College and, as a transfer student to the university, I had passed my first semester in 2016. 

During the spring of 2017, though, that all changed. I had been diagnosed with epilepsy three years earlier after experiencing symptoms of it for months. I would tense up and sometimes lose control of what I was doing, such as walking around a building. My symptoms were still there in community college. However, they were still stable with medication and a relatively low-stress schedule.

In the spring 2017 semester, however,  I started to experience seizures at an increased rate — sometimes up to five times a week. I would lose complete control of myself and have no idea of what was going on around me. I would follow people around and sometimes even walk into the street. Sometimes I had up to three seizures in the same day. 

All of this affected me greatly. I started to lose focus in classes, and my grades dropped significantly. My social life decreased because I spent almost all of my time in my dorm. Eventually, it got so bad that I was forced to drop out of school for the semester. I left the dorm with all my belongings in a big rolling bin and never came back. 

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by a tendency to experience recurring seizures that are unrelated to other medical conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 3.4 million Americans are living with active epilepsy. Most of those people — about 70% – can control their symptoms with medication. But the rest need stronger interventions, such as surgery, to control seizures.

With my medication adjusted and with less stress surrounding me, I tried to return to school in the fall of 2017, but the attempt only lasted a week. I was forced to drop out with no plan to return. 

After that withdrawal,  I was in a slump for more than nine months. I didn’t know what to do anymore. All I would do all day is just sit around all day and sleep. I didn’t have any motivation to do anything, not even watch television or go on the internet. It was six months before I could even read a book. After that, I was able to get a job, but I lost it because of my seizures. The epilepsy caused two more job losses. Finally, I kept a job as a stocker at a Hy-Vee grocery store.  As my symptoms continued,  I was put on more epileptic medications, which made me more exhausted than ever.

My grandfather helped me through that time. We would talk a lot, always about sports. We would go out to breakfast when he visited me. I would call once a week. He always praised me for calling him so often. He would ask: “Why aren’t you doing something in sports yet?”

In the summer of 2022, more than five years after the epilepsy breakout, a neurologist suggested that I get surgery to implant a device known as a deep brain stimulator (DBS), which delivers controlled electrical pulses to interrupt the abnormal electrical signals that cause seizures. Because I could not control my epilepsy well with medication, we decided this was the best option for me. 

I had the surgery. My seizures were dramatically reduced. My motivation improved. But another obstacle lay in my path. 

I still wanted to get a degree. But this time, I didn’t have faith in myself that I could succeed in archaeology or paleontology. I didn’t even know if those were my callings. 

 A few months after my surgery, my grandfather had a stroke. He was still alive when I started to take classes at Normandale Community College in the summer of 2023. He died soon after. By the time I finished a class in business and technical writing, I  finally decided to go into sports information – as my grandfather had always urged me to do. 

Now I am back at the University of Minnesota taking classes in the journalism school. Finally I am at a stable level. I know what I want to do with my life, and the seizures aren’t affecting me significantly. I am able to focus on classes, and I get decent grades. 

  I understand what it means to struggle through a disability toward recovery, just as professional athletes have had to deal with disabilities in their lives. Athletes such as Garrett Mitchell with his diabetes and Tom Dempsey with his lack of toes on his kicking foot are just two examples of the resilience needed to play the game.

I also understand what it means to follow my true beliefs and never stop trying. I know that if I do that, I can go far.