APPLICANT #27: Is Caroline Cooper the Young & Free SC Spokesperson?

Caroline Cooper is a 19-year-old student from Charleston, South Carolina.

Here is Caroline's video application:

Here is Caroline's current situation:

"Hello fellow Carolinians! Caroline Cooper here reporting for duty. OK, so the skinny on me… I was born and raised here in historic Charleston, and can I just say, isn’t this the most charming city? I graduated from James Island High School, and have been taking classes online through Brigham Young University Idaho.

I may not have the age and experience that some of the other applicants have, but I definitely have the heart. I did Broadcast Journalism for three years in high school, and it has always been a passion of mine. This could truly be my dream job, and may pave the way for my future career. (My destiny rests in your votes! OK, kidding!)

I’ve always been very outgoing, never afraid of making new friends, or striking up random conversation – in fact, I can hardly stay in one place for more than 5 minutes without talking to the stranger standing next to me, whether in a ticket line at the fair, or someone in the same aisle at the grocery store. Life is meant to be an adventure, and I look for a new one every day. I hope you’ll give me the chance to pursue this adventure and vote me to be your new Young and Free Spokesperson."

Here is Caroline's blog post:

"How I Got To Be Young & Free

Okay, so I guess I dropped the “BS” bomb in my video. WAIT! Not that bomb! The “brain surgery” bomb. To me it’s not as much of an unusual expression to her, but to others, maybe it’s not an “everyday” expression. I’ll start from the beginning so y’all are not confused.

When I was seven I had my first grand mal seizure – that’s the only kind of seizure that makes a person shake – or also known as “to seize”. The first seizure I had was the worst. I seized for so long – 28 long minutes – that the doctors had to give me a medicine that shuts down my brain. I had another seizure when I was eight, which made the doctors start wondering even more why I had them. My neurologist at the time thought I had a psychological problem that was forcing my brain to have seizures in order to get attention from others – my parents didn’t like him after that.

Thankfully, I finally found a doctor that did care about me, but not until I was thirteen. I lived for five years going to school every day, knowing that I was going to have a seizure. It was hard. Socially, mentally, and emotionally – it was hard. How did I do it? I knew that one day I would be free of seizures – there was just a feeling in my heart that I would.

So, since most of you probably aren’t that familiar with the process of brain surgery I’ll tell you a little about it. During the surgery they had to keep me partially awake and ask me random questions so they could focus on what parts of my brain they were taking out. Of course, the anesthetics that they gave me kept me from remembering anything specific, except that afterward I was really emotional. But maybe that’s to be expected?

At the end of my surgery, they filled “the hole” with saline solution, because something had to take up the space. (I told you I was missing parts of my brain.) After the first brain surgery, when I was 13, I felt like a normal teenage girl. I had friends, was a cheerleader, and of course crushed on boys. It was a pretty good year. But my freshman year of high school changed. I started to have smaller petty mal (the weakest seizure) again. I didn’t want to tell my parents. I had already stressed them out for so many years, I didn’t want them have to worry about me once again, but eventually I knew it would be the right thing to do.

The positive part about us going back to the hospital was that we knew what we were doing. We knew the doctor to go to. And we knew what we wanted. The second brain surgery was June of 2006. I was 16. In the words of the brain surgeon, they “popped the top and zapped it out”. (Yeah, I was a bit startled when he phrased it like that, BEFORE the surgery.)

People always ask me if I wish that I wouldn’t have had to endure through this trail – and you know what? I’m grateful for this trial. It was difficult. It was long. It was scary. But I learned who I am. How I will present myself. And why I try to live my life to be my best.

OK, so brain surgery may sound like a big deal, and maybe it is, but really in truth, it makes me just like everyone else. Because I know we all grow through hard times, and having trials makes us all stronger. If you feel like you have an experience that you can share with others, post it on my blog, because I know I’m not the only person who cares.

Caroline"

The Y&F SC Team

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