“Crohn’s can be tough sometimes but you eventually learn to deal with it. It’s a genetic condition that affects my intestinal lining so it’s not like I can control it, and that’s the mentality I have when dealing with problems associated with Crohn’s. The biggest problems are eating/maintaining weight and it’s a lot of managing it to make sure you don’t flare up, which is like a fancy way of saying ‘get sick.’ I manage it pretty well with a bi-weekly injection and it’s not too hard at all. It’s just like an epi-pen that takes a couple of seconds. With that said it can still be difficult dealing with fatigue and just being tired among other things. When I think about an especially difficult time I think of when I first got diagnosed and it was super hard to learn how to give yourself a shot, find what food makes you feel good, and overall just how to manage it to gain weight, play sports, etc. But I eventually got over this, and once you figure this out it is pretty straight forward. I’ve been in remission for several years now and have been doing good. Crohn’s has taught me to be a healthy individual but also taught me lots of skills to manage diet, exercise and more to make myself feel good. Crohn’s doesn’t affect me other than weight/dietary things and I’m a pretty average person other than that. I live a pretty typical life other than sometimes being sicker than usual because of my meds and needing to pay more attention to dietary things and managing weight and nutrition intake. I would say that Crohn’s can be hard sometimes but, it has made me a better person with needing to work around it to feel good,” Jr. Owen Graham said.