CONNECTION, LAUGHTER AND UNDERSTANDING
What NF Connect means to me by Jasmine Le Tisser (CTF Intern)
Every month I look forward to the one evening at 8pm when people with NF across Australia, around my age from 13 to 30, get the chance to join a video call together.
These NF connect sessions for teens and young adults are a massive highlight for me, it always feels like a family reunion (the fun kind, not the fighting with your relative’s kind).
It’s great to have space where I feel understood, listened to and where I get to be a part of other people’s lives as well. It’s even more than that, though, it’s a place where I feel like we all are in this together, holding each other up, when sometimes it feels like there are other forces dragging us down.
I really enjoy the time we spend on our Zoom call, we laugh about the most random of things, talk about our weeks, days, month and share highlights. We all benefit from getting together, hearing about each other’s experiences or asking questions we wouldn’t get the answers to in other places, such as ways to deal with school, hospital transitioning, or just the day-to-day NF struggles.
The topics we cover are endless, I’m pretty sure most of the people who join the calls would agree with my sentiments. We all share our ways to make it through and all of us leave the calls just that little bit stronger.
I love my NF Connect family and I am blessed to have found others who understand what I, well I mean we, all go through.
If you haven’t joined an NF Connect session yet, whether you’re a teen, young adult, adult or a parent or carer of someone with NF, I can personally recommend that you give it a try, even if you’re feeling scared or wondering what it is.
It’s a chance to just let it all out, no matter what you have going on in your life. I think we are all stronger together and by sharing and connecting we can lift each other up and you can find people that understand what it’s like to live with NF.
To learn more about NF Connect click here. Sessions are run each month for Teen and Young Adults, Adults and Parents and Carers.