My name is Stephen Cummins I live in Dublin, Ireland, I'm a 27 year old bilateral PFFD person.
I thought I'd email you to tell you about my life experience generally up until now. I am going to have to leave loads of detail out!
I hope that by doing so I will be giving you the knowledge that someone with PFFD like your daughter Jennifer can live a good, happy life. I enjoyed browsing your website and appreciate your efforts to put it there for people like me.
Growing up was difficult, but isn't it always? My parents decided to take me out of a "special" school and start me in our local primary school and while that exposed me for the first time to feeling that I was different from most children (less ambulatory) I also had friends who saw through that and I was OK. I was quiet and introspective but got by. My teens were surprisingly usual I think. My acne and the boring village my folks had moved to (in Wicklow) were bigger problems for me than my disability for my newly forming ego, but I acted cool, was in a band (I sat no a bar stool to play guitar) and my relations with the opposite sex were good, I've no complaints now, although my best friend always seemed to be doing better than me!
I completed a Bachelor Arts Degree in English and Philosophy in University College Dublin when I was 20. My college years were typical also, I then tried radio and film production, and even tarot card reading as career options before I discovered the internet. I work as a contractor now, my client for the next eight months is Microsoft, I am one of the people who co-ordinate the companies who translate Microsoft's software into around 16 languages, and work on their websites as well. I am engaged now for the last two years (she won't get me without a fight) to someone I think will be my partner for life, I am very happy and successful and life is good.
My disability has made me a stronger person: more determined, more understanding of the differences between us all that we all have to see through, and most importantly I think it has given me a vitality and appreciation of the gift of life, that it's not to be wasted. My parents have had an almost supernatural ability to give me and my brother and sister what we needed and I still do not fully appreciate how much they have done for me, maybe I will when I'm a parent myself.
So that's it as briefly as I can put it. The best of luck to you and your daughter in the future.
Sincerely,
Stephen Cummins