On January 17th, 2023, my life changed. On the way home that day, my parents and I got a call from our doctor telling us that I had cancer. Time stopped, it didn’t feel real at the moment. All I wanted to do was go back to school, have a normal day but nothing was normal about that day. A few weeks later I went for my first PET scan and had a biopsy done on the right side of my neck, then I was officially diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I had my port placed on February 8th, and went to my academic team competition the next day.

Everything felt normal until I started my first round of chemo. I can say 2 things about my first round of chemo, I never knew I could be that tired and I will never want to take steroids again. EVER! The worst part of my first chemo trip was steroids, they made me so sick every time I took them, but besides that I was really just tired. When I came back to school, my choir and my English class had surprised me with all kinds of amazing gifts, and they were always checking on me and sending me cards while I was getting chemo to make sure I was doing ok.

Also, my community rallied around me from the moment they knew I was sick, some people I didn’t even know were showing their support for me. They made shirts, they threw benefits, and they all made sure I knew I was loved by them. On May 31st 2023, I rang the bell and was officially cancer free after 5 rounds of treatment. Even through all the rough times I had during my treatments, I had so many good things happen. I became best friends with one of my nurses and we still talk and see each other at my check-ups. I was student of the year in 8th grade, and now I get to help other people and many other cancer patients know that there is good that can come out of bad situations.