Always Looking Forward
— Alexus Jones

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, my mother received her Huntington’s diagnosis almost a year ago. My parents waited to tell me until I arrived home for winter break from school because they didn’t want the news to affect the end of my semester. I…

I’m a logical person. I tend to look at the numbers and make a rational assessment of a situation. But I also want to be happily surprised rather than disappointed, so I expect the worst to be true. I describe it as being a realist…

I am amazed at the differences in the ways our brains work and the variations that exist in our thought processes. My roommate and I were discussing this subject, and she told me that she thinks in pictures. My thoughts, on the other hand, manifest as words.

In my previous column, I talked about the day I received my diagnosis. I got through the following weeks by telling myself that nothing in my life had changed, and that I had no choice but to move forward. I knew time was not going to stop…

I mentioned the day that I received the results of my genetic test in my first column. It was a Friday. I had been told to make plans for that day, because not knowing what you’re going to do can contribute to stress. However, I didn’t arrange…

As you may have read in a previous column, I decided to get tested for Huntington’s at 22 years old. For me, it was a no-brainer. I wanted to get tested because I can’t handle unknowns. They vex me. I have obsessive-compulsive disorder, so…

“How are you?” is one of the most common greetings I hear. It is ingrained in the culture and is distinctly American. Unless the person is a close friend, the anticipated answer is “good” or “fine.” If you are feeling terrible, “a little sick”…

My mother is right about pretty much everything, so much so that I sometimes think that she can see into the future. So, whenever she is wrong, I feel the urge to take out my phone and record her admitting her mistake. Those occasions are…

Today, I was opening a straw for my drink the way I always do: I rip off a small section toward one end, then remove the longer end of the wrapper. While holding the shortened wrapper, I insert the bare end of the straw into the cup…

I decided that I did not want to have children so long ago that I no longer remember it. At the time, I thought I only had a 25 percent chance of having Huntington’s disease. Since then, I have come up with plenty of…

Growing up, the fact that my grandfather had Huntington’s disease (HD) wasn’t a secret. It was the reason that, when we drove to Pennsylvania to see my family, we had to pull over to feed him through a tube. It was also why I watched the man…