personal

Facts: Born in Yokosuka Japan, grew up in Dugway Utah, Graduated from Ricks College in Rexberg Idaho in 1998, served a full time mission for the LDS church as a Family History missionary in Provo Utah, now attending Brigham Young University, majoring in American Studies, with a minor in Logic. Favorite classes this semester are Women's chorus and Latin Ballroom.

Things that make me happy: rain, thunder and lightening, camping and fishing with the dad, finishing a semester, the ocean, pink, puppies, my cats Bitty and Sophie, frogs, flowers (New Guinea impatiens), fairies by Mary Baxter St Clair and Donna Green, flying, friends, school, bed time, orange rolls, chocolate milk, ice cream (cheese cake or mint chocolate-chip or cookies and cream), the smell of dusty roads, clean floors, and hydrangeas

I don't like: icy walkways, fairies without cloths, forgetting things, disappointing those I love.

I want to: learn painting, write a book, learn to swim, learn to spell, be good at algebra, learn to cook tofu, go back to Japan to see where I was made, sing in the citadel, watch my niece and nephew grow up, grow a garden, walk where Jesus walked, see the pyramids, see the world, own a dog, buy back my parrot Sammy who I sold to go to college, get a job (just for a month or so), ride in a hot-air balloon, see aurora borealis, see killer whales in the wild, sing lots.

I have never: eaten a stake, been skiing, been to Spain, painted my nails, ridden a bike, ice skated, liked country music, gambled, danced the boot-scootin'-boogie, been in a place where I had to prove I was over 21, seen the movie Titanic, been from Detroit down to Huston, been stung by a bee, jumped off a diving board, eaten pizza with anchovies, been surfing, been on a waterslide, played soccer, seen a bear at Yellowstone,

I have: broken my femur, been bucked off a horse twice! (unrelated to the broken femur), eaten poi, been in a submarine, been sued, seen Hailey's Comet, been infatuated with Polly Shore when I was 14, played Hermia in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, played Rumplestiltskin in Rumplestiltskin, kissed a frog,

I have been through or to: California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana Wyoming, Kansas Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, New York, Hawaii, Alaska (airport), and Manitoba.

I have three older brothers, Ben, Aaron and Troy. I am the youngest, only girl, daddy's girl--yeah, the spoiled one. Since I had no sisters growing up I had to make up for it with roommates--I've had over 50! That's a lot of girls! Now, don't think that it is because I can't get along with them so they move out... oh my... oh no... what if... naw. Living at Ricks and BYU for eight years can give quite a turnover and I have moved a lot. My roommates have become some of my best friends.

Growing up with three brothers who said it was their job to make me tough really was fun after all. I learned how to fight, how to build forts, how to play army men and build fortresses in the dirt, how to throw dirt-clods, catch snakes and fry ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass. I learned that if you pull legs off of grasshoppers they still kick for a while (not my favorite lesson). I learned that sand puppies kill black widows, scorpions kill sand puppies, red aunts kill scorpions and black widows kill red ants. And lizards really do detach themselves when caught by the tail, cats swim faster than dogs, wasps sizzle, then blow up when you put them in the microwave, jackrabbit eyeballs bounce on pavement like bouncy balls, Chinese stars stick better in drywall than in wood paneling. And fire drips off the counter when you poor lots of alcohol and light it. (Hi mom--you thought I was a tattler but now you know how much I didn't tell!)

A BYU student with a rare genetic disorder shares her optimism with others through song and service.

SHE winces as she unwinds the bandages from her blistered skin. Skin so sensitive that even friction from her clothes opens new sores. For Jamie D. Gibson, '04, and other sufferers of Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa, EB for short, this is life, 24/7.

EB is a genetic disorder that ravages the skin and mucous membranes, and Gibson, a 26-year-old American studies major from Dugway, Utah, is one of the 100,000 Americans with the disease. Having won a genetic lottery that has caused her to suffer from EB her whole life, and despite losing her brother Ben to the disease, the charitable and upbeat Gibson chooses an optimistic outlook and focuses her energy on her greatest joys: singing and service.

"Heavenly Father gave me optimism," Gibson says. "I've never thought 'why me?' I've always known why me; I've never had to ask that. The only time I've ever had to ask 'why me?' is 'why am I so blessed?'"

Once a member of BYU's women's chorus, Gibson started taking voice lessons in high school despite the intense pain from open sores in her mouth and throat. Her soprano voice has resonated at numerous events, including Salt Lake Stinger's baseball games where she's sung the national anthem. She has even made two Christmas CDs, from which all proceedsó$10,000 so faróhave gone to the EB Children's Research Foundation in the quest for a cure.

"I think her music speaks to people's souls; it speaks to people's hearts," says Lynn Fechser Anderson, '61, longtime friend and director of the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation. "All she wants to do is sing. She wants to bring happiness to others through her music."

As a counselor at Camp Wonder in California and Camp Discovery in Minnesota, camps for kids with various skin conditions, Gibson exemplifies the possibilities life holds for those with diseases that can keep them bedridden if they let it. One of the oldest survivors of a disease that kills most by age 30, Gibson is in the honors program at BYU, loves to travel, and served a full-time mission as a family-history missionary in Provo.

"When she goes to the camps, she's a role model to the EB kids. She's also a great friend to them and an effective counselor," says Anderson. "I think that a lot of Jamie's satisfaction in life comes through service."

"She can forget her illness and concentrate on helping somebody else," says Gibson's mother, Sheila. "When you're with Jamie you forget she has EB; she is so focused on others and not herself. She's a light to others."

As Gibson prepares to graduate this August, she looks to continue singing and ponders attending graduate school. In particular, she would like to help others avoid the difficulties she's had obtaining government financial assistance for her condition. Yet as she looks forward to the future, Gibson is careful to be thankful for the past.

"If 10 years ago I could see where I was at now, I would be amazed at the things that I've done," Gibson says. "What Heavenly Father has planned for me has so far been better than what I planned for myself. It makes me excited for what is to come."