Music streams from the piano, formed by a boy whose fingers glide gracefully over the keys. This boy, Philip Wu, has an amazing talent at playing the piano. However, this talent sometimes can be marred by a problem he has. Philip has epilepsy, and the disorder has changed his life tremendously.

  Philip started having seizures when he was nine years old. He said, “I was born in Pennsylvania. After I finished fifth grade, my dad got a job offer and we came here.”

  For about a year and a half, he was homeschooled because his seizures were so strong. Although he is back in school, he still has seizures, often about four to five in school alone.

  Because seizures occur during school, Philip frequently has to wear a bicycle helmet when walking to classes alone, although he does so reluctantly. He usually requires someone to be with him in case of a seizure. He says, “I had to wear helmets before, and I stopped for a while when my seizures came under control. But during winter break, I had a grand mal seizure, and then I had another one.”

  When asked what a grand mal seizure was, he replied, “You go unconscious.”

  These seizures occurred two days before school started and he had injured his arm, but he decided to return to school anyways. “That’s how good of a student he is. Some kids are like ‘My finger hurts’, but he has seizures and he’s still at school,” said Mrs. Aguilar, a Pitman counselor.

  Because not many students are familiar with epilepsy, there have been some misunderstandings about Philip. He has managed to clear it up with a few people, such as students in his piano lab class. One day he decided to share a brochure about epilepsy to the class, and afterwards a student came up to him and apologized because he never knew. “He treats me a lot better now,” Philip said. He usually keeps his condition to himself, but he says the people he hangs out will understand.

  There are some things that Philip is unable to do as a result of his epilepsy, such as PE. However, he doesn’t let this stop him from doing other things, like playing the piano. He has tremendous talent, and even played in a concert at the International Hotel in San Francisco. Philip is very successful in school as well. He takes Honors Chemistry and Honors English, and currently has a 4.33 GPA. He says that when he grows up, he wants to become an engineer. “Even with all these problems…it’s very admirable,” says Mrs. Aguilar.

  His mom is extremely supportive of him and encourages him to do his best. She says, “He is very brave and very bold; he has been so positive. You can’t imagine how positive he is. He never says no, he’s always on track. He just wants to go to school and is really curious about everything. It encourages me to continue to do my best to take care of him.”

  Philip’s upbeat attitude keeps both him and his mother positive and able to take up the challenge of his epilepsy head-on.

  This attitude shows when talking to him. When asked if there was anything he wanted to share with others, he said, “A lot of people worry about what I see as minor things, like bad hair days,” he said humorously, “and they don’t come to school. The second grand mal seizure during winter vacation, I hurt my left arm and I couldn’t do work with it, so it was kind of hard for the first few days, but I still came to school.”

  This determined attitude seems surprising when faced with his epilepsy, but for Philip it is an everyday approach to life.