Always Looking Forward
— Alexus Jones

Growing up, my grandparents and I drove every summer from Florida to Pennsylvania to visit our extended family. I spent time with their siblings, nieces, and nephews who still lived in the state. I adored my family, and in turn, they adored me. At the time, family was…

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I finally exchanged our Christmas presents. This exchange consisted of us renting a car and driving over nine hours through a winter storm to get to an Airbnb outside of Toronto.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children get their first dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine between 12 and 15 months. Of course, some children can’t receive it due to immune system problems or severe allergies,…

“It could be worse” is a sentiment I hear fairly often. It’s often said after I express sympathy for someone’s situation — such as when someone worked until 10 p.m. instead of leaving at 6. It’s as if the sympathy is unwarranted because it wasn’t the absolute worst…

Every family, regardless of religion or background, has at least one time of year that is special to them. A time when they get together and celebrate, repeating rituals that have been passed down through the generations. For my family, that time is…

For this column, I interviewed my best friend about her thoughts on Huntington’s. Here are my questions and her answers: During your freshman year, you had a lecture on Huntington’s. Do you remember your thoughts about it at that time? I was taking an introductory biology class, and we were…

Over this past holiday, my wonderful parents got me the Nintendo Switch and the new Pokemon game (specifically Shield, because it had cooler Pokemon). Yes, I am aware this makes me geeky, but the game is amazing. As soon as I started playing, I couldn’t…

At around 1 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2019, my aunt was pronounced dead. She had been waiting with her son in their car outside their house for a storm to abate when a tree fell on the car. Fortunately, my cousin was unharmed.  My aunt had…

While traveling to a recent event on the T, greater Boston’s public transport system, I felt as if I were in a generic movie about a city-dwelling 20-something. I love living in Boston. While it is not as big as Chicago or New York, after…

Some moments are so perfect that you wish time would stop so that some part of you could live in that moment forever. These moments can be significant milestones, such as receiving word that you’ve been accepted into your dream school or hearing that you landed the job…

I was recently invited to talk about my column on Help 4 HD Live!, a weekly podcast for the Huntington’s disease community. The host, Lauren Holder, asked me how the revelation that I am a gene carrier has affected my relationships. I told her I…

In a previous column, I wrote about how I believe it is likely for a medical breakthrough to happen by the time I am old enough to have symptoms. I need to add a caveat to that statement: It is only true if there are people doing…