To my new friend, Sameen from Pakistan.

Good morning, everyone. I awoke this morning in awe of a beautiful comment I received from a girl named Sameen, living in Pakistan:

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Dear Mandy,

It's great to see you living your life to the fullest in spite of epilepsy and guiding others about it. My Brother is 18 years old and was diagnosed with epilepsy and minor deformity in the left side of his brain at the age of 4 . We have seen many doctors but medication has never produced any significant effect. His condition has caused him a lot of problems in learning so he had difficulty in coping with the regular stressors of school. So my parents decided to hire a tutor. I wanted to ask you if you have any advice on a suitable career for him that he can excel at because he is not sure about what path to pursue. He is good at math and painting and technical stuff like assembling parts etc. I would be happy if you advise me on this. Thanks a lot and may Allah bless you.

Sameen
Karachi, Pakistan

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For whatever reason, Blogger would not let me post a comment large enough to say what I wanted to say back to Sameen and her brother, so this post is dedicated to them both. I am just so amazed how Sameen cares for her brother so dearly, and I think she deserves her own blog post today.

I know I promise pictures of some of my artwork, so I will feature a few pieces at the end of this article.

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Hello, my friend, Sameen. Thank you so very much for your meaningful comment. It's amazing to know that I have readers all the way in Pakistan. God bless your brother, and kudos to him for dealing with Epilepsy for such a long time, and from such a young age. I also have a brain deformity on my left side, ever since I was in the womb. It developed during the first trimester of my mum's pregnancy, and that small part of my brain never fully developed like a regular adult brain. Although I am barely turning 18 myself, my advice for your brother is that nothing is impossible. Whatever career he would like to pursue is never too far out of reach.

I remember a time I felt as if my condition limited me. I felt that no one could respect me doing a certain job if I was Epileptic. I even felt that no one could respect me as a decent human being, having Epilepsy. Then, one day I learned that some of the greatest people in history suffered, or should I say GLORIFIED with Epilepsy. Sir Isaac Newton had Epilepsy (a great mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and natural philosopher). Even many other famous people in this world had Epilepsy. Please visit this link to another one of my blog posts to see a few. The people on this particular post are more widely known to Americans, but there are links at the end to see other people worldwide.

http://mandykrzywonski.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-21-famous-people-with-epilepsy.html

Though this condition is definitely serious, your brother should live as if there is no tomorrow and pursue the career of his dreams. If he is good at math and assembling parts (Which truly is a God given gift to an Epileptic, because my Epilepsy seems to have made math much more difficult for me and many people I have talked to. ) then maybe he would be interested in being an engineer. There are so many people with great minds like your brother needed in this world to be engineers. Engineers can find wonderful, well paid jobs in almost any country or industry, but some great places to set his sights on might be in the military, automotive industries, NASA, etc. Your brother, I believe in my mind, must have a unique gift if he still has these skills with such a serious disorder. Very few people have the ability to stay good at math because it puts so much strain on their brains. Most adult Epileptics I have talked to try to avoid math as much as possible.

I can see you care about your brother very much, and for that, Sameen, you shall be blessed as well as him. Tell your brother to use the gift he has been given, study hard, have faith, and keep his head up, I know he will succeed in life! God bless you both, and keep in touch!

Your friend,
Mandy Krzywonski

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Success Quotes:

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that's where you will find success."
- Thomas J. Watson


"Success is a journey, not a destination."
- Ben Sweetland

"If you care at all,you'll get some results.If you care enough, you'll get incredible results."
- Anonymous



"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek."
- Mario Andretti (race car driver)


"I believe the greater the handicap, the greater the triumph."
- John H. Johnson


"A stumble may prevent a fall."
- English Proverb

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”
- Gail Devers

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Here is my latest piece of Jesus. He isn't finished yet. Still a lot of work to go. But this painting happened in an hour and a half, which just blows my mind! I'll post pictures of him when he's all finished. I have extended his facial hair a tad bit, particularly on the mustache. This picture is also cropped, so there is a lot more background than you can see. I really want to add emphasis to the eyes, hair, and... well everything. He's almost done though! So many people want to buy this one, but I don't know if I can let it go! I have offers up to $950.00 right now but I love it too much.




This is an untitled abstract painting I completed a week before the Jesus painting. The picture quality is low, since it was taken with my smart phone. So it's hard to see the really cool colors and shading on this painting. But it really is an awesome piece. I plan to make a whole "family" of paintings like this one.





Here is the painting my wela (grandmother, abuela, etc.) made me paint for her while she was in town. It's more of mexican art, which is something that I enjoy doing. I didn't like it too much, but it's how she wanted it. Don't have much authority over my wela!




This is the last painting I have time to show. This is a beautiful texture painting, and the first texture painting I ever created. It's an acrylic/sand paining on canvas, and it's just brilliant. I wish you could all see it in person because the photo does it no justice!

I'm off for now. I have a terrible virus that I'm not over yet, and I need to take my steroids and antibiotics ( ugh ) and get some rest. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos! God bless you all!

- Mandy Krzywonski