What could be more intimidating for a youth with Poland Syndrome that the dreaded Locker Room change after P.E. or for athletic teams.  Few teens enjoy this process anyway, but for one with PS, there may be added dread of “being discovered”, or “appearing abnormal” at a time in life when just everyone feels abnormal to a degree.

Girls are developing at different rates.  Boys are desiring to “beef-up” and be the biggest, baddest, strongest.

There can be an awful lot of self-consciousness floating through the locker room each day as herds of youth change in and out of the gym clothes.

For the one with PS, that self-consciousness can be on high alert, and the desire to hide in a corner can be overwhelming.

 

In Middle School and High School I played sports, in addition to the required P.E.  Thanks to the extremely short amount of time we had to change between classes, everyone was too busy rushing to get changed to notice or care about me changing.  In addition, many my peers were also self-conscious, so they too sought their own aisle of lockers to change without any on-lookers.

In college, however, there was nowhere to hide.  I played collegiate soccer and it during away games it was expected that we would shower and change before hopping on the bus to return to campus.  Most of my teammates also showered in the locker room after home games, but with my dorm room a 5 minutes bike ride away, no one thought twice about me preferring to head home and clean up after the game.

But at away games, we stank and had to endure hour long bus rides together coming home.  While I probably could have opted out of the post-game shower, it would have caused more questions as no one else objected.  So each away game, while my teammates had little-to-know hesitancy about stripping naked and showering up, I’d find a corner of the shower room to hide in as I shampooed and washed as fast as humanly possible.

I have no idea what my teammates thought about my bizarre behavior, but none ever asked.  And I survived, somehow. To my teenage friends out there, you will too! 🙂