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When asked to share an "interesting fact" about themselves during their unit's orientation meeting last September, most residents of Unit 15 provided the same old run-of-the-mill responses. Many announced that they were double-jointed, had broken bones in the past, or had moved to different countries several times throughout their childhood. But none of their interesting facts was nearly as awesome as the piece of information provided by Richard Sedgwick '13, according to the smug fucking smile he had on his face at the time.
"I have a supernumerary kidney," Sedgwick announced to his dormmates, eliciting blank stares and confused faces.
After one of his resident counselors asked him to clarify, Sedgwick explained he has three kidneys.
"My nephrologist says it's uncommon but not dangerous," Sedgwick said. "I'm completely healthy-for now. But who knows what the future might bring."
Sedgwick's announcement initially elicited sympathy from his dormmates, but they quickly came to recognize that, extra kidney or not, he was a dick.
"At the time I felt bad for him," said Charlie Yee '13, one of Sedgwick's floormates. "But now when I look back to that orientation meeting, I realize that Richie was milking the shit out of that extra kidney from day one. Actually, I'd guess he's been using it to seem cool since at least high school."
Sedgwick, whose peers now refer to him as "Renal Richie" behind his back, revealed at a dinner with some floormates during the first week of school that he wrote his college essay about his third kidney.
"It was about how I always give everything 150%, both in my studies and in the number of organs in my excretory system," he said.
Sedgwick has developed several strong friendships with students who, like him, all face medical challenges. Their problems range from ailments as minor as dandruff and mild scoliosis to more serious disorders such as lactose intolerance and partial colorblindness.
Sedgwick, who has participated in the New York City Kidney Walk four times throughout high school, plans to attend a kidney fundraiser in Boston with some of his new friends during the spring.
"Kidney disease is something that's really prevalent and that we tend to overlook in favor of other illnesses, like cancer and HPV," Sedgwick said in the October 2006 issue of his high school paper, in a 1500 word article (that he wrote himself) about the trials he's gone through as a disabled teenager. "I'm fortunate to be blessed with three fully functional kidneys at the moment, but any day they could fail. We need more research, and we need more funding-and we need it now."
An International Relations concentrator with a focus in Hublic Health, Sedgwick hopes to one day work as a policymaker in Washington. But his main goal for now is to "direct more students' attention to the problems faced by the seriously ill."
He is currently designing a GISP for next semester, tentatively entitled "Wheeling across Washington: Public Policy and Disability in the 21st Century."
"People like me are faced with discrimination every day. We're mocked and called names, just because we have a problem over which we have no control," Sedgwick said. "It's really difficult to be a disabled person, even at a place as tolerant as Brown."
When asked to comment on Sedgwick's self-proclaimed status as an "up-and-coming leader of the disabled community at Brown," a girl in a wheelchair responded, "Come on.for reals?"
