Kevin Dwyer has laughed in the face of numerous challenges.

Dwyer, a senior majoring in English, minoring in education and theater and earning a certificate in creative writing, is a self-described “Renaissance man” from Hawthorne, N.Y.

But attending Saint Louis University wasn’t always in the cards for him. The summer before his freshman year, Dwyer contracted a rare disease called CNS Lyme Disease.

Even from an early age, Dwyer used humor to overcome being the only “Irish kid in a special, little town filled with Italians.”

“I used to never talk,” Dwyer said. “But I [would practice] jokes and impressions the entire day to get my friend to laugh.”

Dwyer met his best friend, who grew up in the town next to his, on the train to school. He made Dwyer perform jokes.

Dwyer said his best impression is his Elmo impression. He even has the laugh down, which Dwyer said, “creeps people out.”

His friend may have encouraged him to get into comedy, but it was Dwyer’s will power to attend SLU that helped him battle Lyme Disease.

The disease caused rashes to appear on his body and half of his face to go numb in paralysis.

“My family and I saw six doctors in one day to figure out what this was,” he said. “It was hell.”

Dwyer said that the doctors thought he would die from the disease. But Dwyer recovered, and doctors discouraged him from starting school in the fall.

“I’m going to school,” he said, determined. “My life’s screwed because of this? I don’t think so.”

Dwyer had to give himself medication everyday his freshman year through a pick-line, a tube that went to his heart through his arm, in order to bring medicine directly to the heart.

“I would sit in the clinic with an IV bag attached as I did philosophy homework,” he said. “And people would stare at me, wondering if they were going to get that too.”

Dwyer is now completely cured of the disease. His plans include graduating on time at the end of the spring semester. His goal is to attend “graduate school at night and teach during the day.”

When not focused on school, Dwyer loves sports. He taught himself golf in high school by going to driving ranges and reading books about the sport.

He described golf as a “love-hate game” that he wants “to divorce every 10 seconds.”

“It takes forever to learn a golf swing,” he said.

Also a baseball fan, Dwyer has his favorite teams, which differ from many St. Louisans. “I accept the Cardinals. My favorite teams are the Mets, the Yankees and the Houston Astros,” he said.

Dwyer doesn’t remember when or why the Houston Astros first appealed to him, but he explained that a love for “strange teams” runs in his family.

“We like all New York teams, except Buffalo. We don’t consider Buffalo part of New York,” he said.