<p>My mom has Lyme disease and was unable to walk for 12 years during my childhood. This most definitely impacted me. I was pushing her around in a wheelchair as a 10 year old and it made me become independent and it made me have a special relationship with her. I am wondering if this should show up on my application under "anything else to add" about your parents' situations. I do not want to appear as though I'm trying to get the sympathy of the admissions officers, but it is something that influenced me as a little kid. </p>
<p>I had the weird idea of asking my mom to write something about it and send that in as a rec, but I am sure they won't see it as legit coming from my mom. I just don't know how to include this.</p>
<p>You don't need your mom to verify the disease or to write about how it affected you. That's your job. If you feel it's been a significant influence on your life, then write about it. If not, then don't force it.</p>
<p>Ham, many application essays have a prompt that asks you to write about something that changed your life, affected you, or made you who you are today. Your experience with your mother is appropriate to talk about in an admission essay if you remember to talk about yourself and answer the prompt. If you prefer to write about something else, then by all means, mention the illness in the "anything else to add" section. You do not need to worry about having your mother writing letters to admissions counselors. You are who they are interested in. Be sure you write about it in a way that tells them how it impacted you and your studies or choice of/lack of EC's, etc.</p>
<p>you should also discuss this with your HS counselor as they can write about how this has impacted your opportunities for ECs, as bessie points out.</p>