Image used with permission and found here.
Venus Williams has to be thrilled with her 6-0, 6-3 victory over Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan on Wednesday.
I know that I am.
Sjogren's: Love. Venus: Game!
Here's what this famous sjoggie had to say about her victory:
“I feel like a person that has an auto-immune disease,” Williams said when asked if she felt any fatigue. “You know, for me, I’m not going to probably feel like everybody else. But for me, my personal best is to give 100 percent.”A focused and determined answer to a reporter's question. But most importantly, a realistic answer. I think I may just borrow her, "I feel like a person that has an auto-immune disease." sentence.
The rest of Williams’s answer was interrupted when her pet Havanese, Harold, climbed out of her bag and began to walk away.
“You know, someone with an auto-immune disease definitely faces different challenges than other people,” she said later. “But it doesn’t mean you can’t be successful.”
Great volley, Venus.
I can only imagine what she could have said. Perhaps something along the lines of, "Fatigued? Duh!!" or she could have just dropped like a stone right on the baseline. Or she could have fibbed and said that she had beat Sjogren's and that the word fatigue is no longer in her vocabulary. Ah, but Venus is one smart cookie.
Notice that Venus doesn't say that she has conquered auto-immune disease, or that Sjogren's has conquered her. Her comment, "(A sjoggie) definitely faces different challenges than other people," is so simple yet true.
Life does change after the arrival of auto-imune disease. Not for the better - not for worse. The challenges in life simply change their character.
3 comments:
Yay! That's great news.
Her rhetoric has definitely changed as she's come to realize that a lot of the stock phrases people use around disease ("You can beat this! Just be strong! With the right diet/exercise/treatment plan, you'll be fine.") aren't realistic.
I think she'll be successful and a fantastic advocate for all people with AI disease now. I love the quote you included here!
I think it was ESPN that wrote that she said that just being able to play that day was a big win for her. I sort of said a whoop whoop for her because it really was. I'm glad that she won the match.
I admire her for charging forward. It must be hard to have the world watching while facing the challenges. At the same time...the world IS watching her face the challenges.
I sort of picture her out there on the court kicking my mental picture of Sjogren's butt. Whack! Whack! Don't you wish sometimes you could do that to stupid Sjogren's? Take THAT! And THAT!
Yay Venus! I'm so glad she's back on the courts.
You know, tennis media people used to make snarky comments about how the Williams sisters didn't play as many tournaments as everyone else. Now, I have to wonder if part of that was Venus realizing well before her diagnosis, as many of us do, that she just needed more rest between events in order to stay competitive without knowing why.
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