TIB

THIS I BELIEVE

      

  This project was to write our personal story on what we believe. As far as writing goes, I think that this is the most personal piece that I have ever wrote. It was very hard to write because it brought back a bunch of emotions that were very hard to reopen. Once completing this assignment, we had to upload it to the this I believe website.

I BELIEVE IN PERSEVERANCE
A week shy of my sixteenth birthday, I was living the typical teenager life. I was hanging out with friends, playing sports, and of course, procrastinating on doing homework.  Life was perfect and my future was bright. On the morning of my sixteenth birthday, my home phone received a call that shattered 
my life. The hospital was calling to inform my family on a CAT scan that I had received previously that week due to a minor volleyball related concussion. With unexpected results, the doctors needed to see me immediately.  The next day I received the news that I had a rare and incurable disease called NF2. NF2 is benign tumors that grow on the central nervous system. They also delightfully informed me that I would be deaf by the time that I graduated high school and there was nothing I could do about it. Upset and traumatized wouldn’t begin to describe how I felt.

To make matters worse, when I told people about it for support, my so-called friends weren’t there and my boyfriend dumped me. My family dealt with the news in various ways such as depression, alcoholism, and busily buried their minds in work. This was the first time in my life I had to stand on my two feet, and my two feet alone. I literally had no one. Shortly after, I fell into a depression, since afterschool friend hangouts became doctor appointments and weekday volleyball practices turned into chemotherapy sessions. The hospital became my second home, but sometimes it felt like my first. I was lost, terrified, abandoned and felt like there was no future.

 These emotions and hopelessness continued until one day I was sitting in the infusion room and decided that enough was enough. A thought was planted in my head that day and I’ll never forget it. It was, sure I have Nf2, but it doesn’t define me. Who I was and who I thought I should become wasn’t who I was meant to be.  But that’s okay. I will be better. I decided from then on that any obstacle that I was going to face, no matter what, I would preserver and never give up.

Two years later, during my senior year of high school, I had to receive brain surgery to de-bulk one of the tumors and relearn how to walk. But I pushed through it and graduated three months later with scholarships, a 4.2 GPA and full hearing.  I found new friends and a new boyfriend worthwhile. My family dealt with their issues and became a backup support system. While my disease is incurable and still requires regular chemotherapy infusions, doctor appointments, surgeries, and MRI’s, I no longer let the fear of the unknown frighten and define me; I know whatever obstacles come my way, I will strive through them. I strongly believe that perseverance has laid the foundation to create my own backbone of strength. Without perseverance, I’d be a shadow of the person that I am today.