Instead of prepping for a party the day before my third birthday, I was in the hospital getting a port placed bright and early, ready to start chemotherapy treatment the very next day. I was diagnosed with a rare disorder called Neurofibromatosis Type 1. Neurofibromatosis, or NF, is a condition where tumors grow in and around the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. There are many side effects to this disease, such as: vision and hearing loss, low gross motor skills, lack of balance and coordination, learning disabilities, physical changes in the body like tumors and birthmarks, and extreme pain. NF has completely changed my life and how I view things in the world. I have many tumors in my brain, with one of the most challenging ones being on my left optic nerve. This tumor has impacted my vision as well as my physical appearance, with a sunken eye, lazy eye, and a disfigurement on the side of my face. Growing up, I hated my appearance and disfigurement, and would often try to hide them behind my hair. It was hard growing up because I rarely met people, even kids my age, with NF. I felt lonely and isolated most of the time because I couldn’t find people to talk to who would understand what I was going through. When I got older, I became more active in research for NF and started writing essays and scholarships about it in school. I was trying to raise awareness of NF in my small high school, as well as starting to reach out online and connect with teenagers who also had it. For once, I felt normal, seeing more people with NF, and enjoying their lives to the fullest, despite being covered in tumors. Recently, I have been actively talking about NF on my social media accounts and in school, spreading awareness not just about NF, but all types of cancers and brain cancers. I want people to know that they can treat us just the same as before they knew there were tumors in our brains, and that we are just as capable of doing great things. We may just take a little longer or use a different path. I've also started my journey towards becoming a teacher. Teaching is something I have always had a passion for, thanks to my teachers. I had growing up helped me thrive and work around my learning style and absence from class when I needed to take a trip up to the hospital for appointments, surgery, and MRIs. To me, being a teacher means that I can help people. I want to help students in school who are struggling due to learning disabilities, just like I did when I was their age. I want them to know that it's okay to struggle, and I am there to help them. I also want to actively talk about my diagnosis to my students, so they know about my disfigurements, spots, and possible future neurofibromas that grow on my skin. I feel like if they are more educated on brain cancer, if they have a family member, friend, or peer who gets diagnosed, the shock may be easier to handle because they already know a few small things. This scholarship will help me finish school debt-free, so I don't need to worry about more bills after finishing my degree, and I can just be a crazy, fun, happy teacher who is always looking on the bright side, despite having a few tumors in her brain.

One of my best friends has been struggling with kidney disease his entire life, and his journey has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride filled with challenges and resilience. Throughout the years, he has undergone many different types of transplants, surgeries, and a seemingly endless array of medications, each step taking a toll on his physical and emotional well-being. During our high school years, he faced a handful of depressive episodes directly linked to his kidney disease. The reality of being on immunosuppressants for the rest of his life weighed heavily on him, and the thought of needing a kidney transplant every few years only added to his anxiety. As someone who also struggles with several chronic health conditions, I could relate to his struggles. This shared experience allowed us to connect on a deeper level, and he reached out to me as a friend who understands the complexities and burdens that come with living with a chronic illness. Through our health struggles, our friendship grew stronger with each passing day. We spent countless hours together, hanging out, working on robotics projects, and going for late-night drives with the music blasting in his car. These moments became a time to let worries slip away. However, there were many times when he faced hospital scares, finding himself in the care of clinics and ICUs in towns far away. Each time, I was consumed by fear and uncertainty, worried about his well-being and whether I would ever see him again. Thankfully, every scare so far has ended with him returning home, and I am always immensely relieved when he makes it back. Yet, there remains a lingering knot in my stomach, a fear of what might happen one day if he doesn't come home. My friendship with him has profoundly influenced my perspective on life and in health. It prompted me to make a decision that I believe is one of the best things I can do: to become an organ donor. Organ donation has already saved his life, and it has the potential to save many more lives in the future. I take comfort in knowing that by becoming an organ donor, I may help others like my friend in their time of need. Through this experience, I have come to understand that many people are unaware of kidney disease, including its symptoms, complications, and various types. It is crucial to do thorough research, visit healthcare professionals regularly, and engage in conversations about health with friends and family. The more proactive we are in seeking medical attention and educating ourselves, the better equipped we are to identify potential issues early on, ultimately saving more lives. As a student with a chronic condition, I am more likely to find myself in the hospital visiting my oncologist, but I recognize that not everyone has the same experience. My friend has changed the way I view not only him but also others and the world around me. He is truly one of the best people I have ever met, and I am continually inspired by his strength and determination. I know that his kidney disease will not hinder him from achieving incredible things, and he remains a powerful motivator for me to keep my own health in check. I hope that together, we can raise awareness and help others in similar situations.

One of my favorite things to do in the game was to immerse myself in a calm and easygoing environment, where I could move at my own pace without any pressing tasks to complete. While other players ventured out to gather resources to confront the Nether, the End, and the Warden (impossible!), I preferred to keep things simple. I enjoyed exploring the villages and taming all of their cats. In creative mode, I loved building theme parks where my friends and I could spend hours having fun. I would place cats throughout the park to help protect it from creepers, ensuring that they wouldn’t destroy my creations. I even named the cats after some of my favorites who have since passed away. Out of all the cat skins, the tuxedo cat is my favorite because it resembles one of my beloved pets, Mikkie. My cat has played a crucial role in helping me manage my anxiety and has made my school experience so much better. She spends almost all her time in my bedroom and has become one of the best emotional support cats I could ask for. With enough resources, I hope to apply to a four-year university and bring her along as my partner in crime. I’ve often wondered if I could find other cat lovers on campus to play Minecraft with, so we can raid all the villages for their cats together!

I was 10 years old when my mom took me to see one of my first musicals, and that was RENT. From then on I fell in love with the soundtrack, and adored the character of ‘Maureen.’ I later realized that Elsa sounded a lot like her, and then my mother introduced me into another musical right before the pandemic, “Wicked.” I listened to the entire soundtrack in one sitting and was in complete shock. The amount of belting power that Idina had completely shocked me, and the story behind the wicked witch of the west- she had a name. I begged my mom to let me see wicked live, but it wasn’t anywhere near us. In the winter of 2021, I applied for a Make-A-Wish again, this time I was once again denied from a wish for “not being sick enough” my wish was to go to New York City and spend a week on Broadway seeing all of the shows, like Beetlejuice, Hamilton, Music Man, and of course, Wicked. That Christmas I was surprised with tickets to see wicked from my mom. That was probably my favorite show that I saw in NYC. I was just blown away with the music, lighting, and costumes. My mom’s first Broadway show was wicked, and wicked was my first Broadway show. I hope that in the future if I ever have kids I can take them to NYC to see wicked live on Broadway. I’m so excited for the movie coming out, and I hope that everyone who has never had the opportunity to see wicked live in stage, can have this moment in the theaters this Thanksgiving. Just remember one thing before going to see it in theaters: Pink goes good with Green :)

When I was just a few months old, I was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), a condition that causes tumors to grow on the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. NF1 can also have unpleasant side effects like vision loss, hearing loss, trouble with balance, learning disabilities, headaches, and exterme pain. I have a handful of brain tumors, the worst one being on my optic nerve, causing a disfigurment in the side of my face, the eyelid being very relaxed, and the eyeball itself shuken into the back of my head. I started chemotherapy treatment the day before my third birthday to try to manage the tumors. Turns out, I was allergic to one of the ingredients in the chemotherapy that they were using, so I ended up ending treatment after 14 months, and I was deemed "stable" enough.  Due to this condition, I missed a ton of school throughout elementary and up in high school. I was and still am constantly in and out of doctor offices, counting the number of MRIs that I have had, which is well over 50 at this point, and fighting with the hospital for not scheduling me now that I have officially reached the age of 18 and am in the middle of transferring to an out-of-state hospital in Clevland, Ohio, where the best NF1 treatment center in the United States is for my future appointments.  Due to all this drama and being in and out of schools, I stugled so much. I developed two different learning disabilities, dyslexia and discalula. which made reading, writing, talking, math, problem solving, and solving problems in my head extremely difficult. Thankfully, I have had the most amazing sets of teachers that helped me through school. I was given an IEP plan and a 504 that I was able to access to help me thrive in my classes. Because of what my teachers did for me and the experiences I had as a student, that all heavlily persuaded me to go into the field of education as my career. Being a teacher means a lot to me. Being someone who has been in the shoes of "the sick kid" or "the stupid kid" can help kids realize that its normal to struggle with learning. I want to create a safe and welcoming environment. During one of my student teaching periods in my junior year of high school, I was reading with a third grade student on K level books. They were struggling so much, they put their heads down and said, "I'm done. Reading beat me." I asked the student what was wrong, and they responded to me, "You're a teacher; you're great at reading; you don't get it." That's when I was able to smile and tell the student that I was in the same boat as them when I was their age. Their faces lit up with excitement, and they got excited that their teacher also struggled, and it was normal and okay! That right there made me see how something as small as that can make the biggest difference in a child's life. And to all of the children and teens fighting cancer, you got this. Never give up and keep fighting for research and a cure.  <3

"Blow out the candles. 'Happy birthday to me.' You've got your whole life ahead of you; you're only nineteen. But I fear that they already got all the best parts of me, and I'm sorry that I couldn't always be your teenage dream." Aside from the fact that I am not 19, this lyric hits me very hard.  When I was just a few months old, I was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Neurofibromatosis Type 1, which causes brain tumors to grow on the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. It also can cause other symptoms like exterme pain and discomfort, learning disabilities, hearing loss, vision loss, poor balance, poor fine and gross motor skills, headaches, migraines, and more.  I started chemotherapy treatment the day before my 3rd birthday, spending that morning out of port placement surgery. On top of that, I had alongside about two other birthdays spent at doctor appointments or one of 50 MRIs that I have had in my life, or at other activities such as drama productions, robotics competitions, varisty bowling regonials, an Oliva Rodrigo concert (I couldn't go, I wish though), and more.  Neurofibromatosis also brought me a handful of different learning disabilities. I struggled so much in elementary, middle, and now, even high school. Some of my teachers'weren't the best with my accommodations, so I would just put my headphones in and listen to music to fade away into a perfect world of music.  On the other hand, constantly being busy on my birthday and often close friends always forgetting made me hate my birthday and always hope I would never have to celebrate it. The trauma from spending that much time and my birthday in the hospital has taken a toll on my mental health as a teenager. Having a rare disease without a cure often makes it stressful and often makes me feel helpless. Being 18 and going to be 19 in March of 2025 has me hopeful and ready. Im hoping that by the time of my 19th birthday I have felt better about myself and hopefully will enjoy a birthday where I can happily blow out my candles and live my last year as a teenager as a teenage dream that I never got to experience.  I agree with Liv when she wonders if she'll spend all of her time wondering and wishing that she could go back after all of these years. I wish I could tell my younger self that everything would be okay and that I would survive. To tell my doctors in advance about my problems so I can get diganosis quicker and heal better; however, instead of glooming over what could've been the past, I know my time would be much rather spent making a change for the future.  So I will keep fighting my neurofibromatosis, and I will get my teenage dream, just in a different unexpected way. My first step is going to a 4-year university so I can get a degree in what I love, teaching. So when students come to me struggling, I know I've already been in most of their shoes; I understand and will do my best to help them succeed. (And tell them to listen to Oliva, of course!)

At the end of the school year, when I was in kindergarten, we wrote autobiographies about our year in kindergarten, ending with what we wanted to be when we grew up, I selected teacher. Since then, almost every single teacher that I have had has been nothing but amazing and understanding towards me. They have kept my ideas of becoming an elementary teacher alive and thriving. Going through school was extremely difficult for me. I was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Neurofibromatosis Type 1 which causes tumors to from on the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. Some of the side effects of this disorder are troubles with balance, talking, writing, and learning disabilities. It already didn’t help I was in and out of the hospital getting chemotherapy and MRIs. However, I was always begging my mom to take me to school so I could be with my teachers. We discovered in kindergarten that I had been affected with multiple learning disabilities, the first one to show being a severe case of dislexia. I was given an IEP and occupational therapist through the school to help me with my spelling and fine motor skills. Throughout all of elementary school, every single one of my teachers made it a priority that my IEP was being fulfilled and I was understanding our assignments. This is when they discovered that I also had dyscalcula. I was put into special education for my math classes. I thrived and my math scores jumped through the roof, the school thought I had “grown out” of my dyscalcula, I failed math that year, and then they put me back in special education because it was what worked and they didn’t want to take it away again. My years of high school were the most challenging. Freshman year was the year of the pandemic so I had to learn through a computer screen not being able to attend in person school due to my health conditions and concerns. I had some of the best teachers that would stay after class time to talk with me and tutor me to make sure I wouldn’t fall behind. This really opened my eyes to see how much they all cared for their students. I also ended up joining three different sports throughout high school. I was a part of the marching band, bowling team, and track team. Going into my first bowling practice as a freshman was scary, all the other girls on the team were seniors and I knew nobody. I was incredibly shy and didn’t really talk to the senior girls, but my coach kept pushing me to talk to them and helped me work on my bowling skills, before I knew it, senior year I was captaining both the girls and boys team. For track and field, I was not very good at my sports. My Discus and Shot Put were always low, but my coach saw my determination. I went to all the extra and optional practices staying late or arriving early for extra throwing time. I learned how to be a leader through my sports, and I want to be the teacher my teachers were for me. I want all students who are struggling with learning disabilities or traumatic life experiences that impact their learning to have an ally. Learning is for everyone. I will forever and always follow this quote, “Everyone is a genius however, if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree it will spend the rest of its life believing that it’s stupid” -Albert Einstein.

Growing up as a disabled student who was in and out of the hospitals due to Neurofibromatosis Type One, I never enjoyed school. The subjects were always hard to follow, the teachers talked too fast, and most didn't understand why I said it was "painful to read". Having dyslexia made reading a challenge, however, I never gave up. I enjoyed reading, seeing the fantasies in the book made me so intrigued to keep reading the stories. I started my journey to high school freshman year on a computer and then transitioned into sophomore year with a brand new English teacher let's call Mrs. M. On the first day of class, she noticed and pointed out my nerdy theater t-shirt and said she enjoyed that musical and its soundtrack. She also had us write personal essays to let her know of anything about us we chose, at this point I had decided to tell her my dreams of becoming a teacher, and the fact that I have cancer. Throughout the rest of the year, she always stayed by my side and went above and beyond as a teacher. She fought for the proper accommodations on my IEPS and 504s, made sure I had every resource available to me, graced me with extensions when I was struggling, and invited me to sit down with her and go over a writing assignment before I turned it in for a final grade. She wanted to make sure that I understood the materials she was teaching because on a test I had a hard time proving I understood. She had made a note that I was probably dealing with some test anxiety. She could ask me in casual conversation about certain topics we were learning in class and I would answer them correctly in a heartbeat- however, on a test, I would just forget everything. As I finished sophomore year, she still invited me into her classroom to catch up and help with some other assignments for my dual enrollment. As I finished my senior year, she helped me with my college classes for early middle college. She edited my college papers and gave me feedback on how to improve. Mrs. M is even more of the reason why I need to be a teacher. Teachers have always made me feel better about myself, Throughout all of my struggles, even the ones that weren't my favorite still tried to help me. Going from the minds of someone who has, and still is struggling through school I understand that certain topics are confusing and you just need to find the tools in your toolbox to help you succeed. When I was student teaching, a student was able to gain more confidence to try to read because I told him I also struggled. It gives students the confidence to know that what they are going through is normal and that someone understands. I want these kids to know that they are in a classroom that is there to help them expand their toolboxes so they can be successful as they grow older. Finding the accommodations that work for them so they can be the very best that they can be.

If my year had a soundtrack it would be "Shake It Off" Taylor's Version. I always find myself being fearless. I've grown up with Taylor Swift since I was a kid. From 5th grade up until now my Senior year of high school I found myself constantly being bullied. One of the ways I would cope was with Taylor's music. The haters would always hate (hate hate) but I would just shake (shake shake) shake it off. It's gonna be alright I would tell myself. My school never did anything to help with the bullying. "Is It Over Now" was able to resemble my fight, Sometimes oh Lord, I think about jumping off of very tall somethings. I was in a bad place. But at least I had the decency to keep my nights out of sight. I hardly went to after-hour functions. I stayed in the clubs where I could be safe at last, and not worry about the bullies. My coping started to work. I knew they were trouble so I would sing along with her as I'd cry on a park bench, my teardrops ricocheted and fell on my guitar. I was able to find a place in this world where I felt seen, not invisible. I found peace with it all. Showing the admin that this is me trying wasn't working. I kept trying and gave up. I could run away into a world of music. I kept in mind for my bullies, that karma exists. I bet they think of me from time to time and are slowly realizing that their bullying is no longer affecting me. Looking on the bright side, a cruel summer will roll in and turn into New Year's Day. I know I will have a better time at college. I can connect to fellow swifties as we listen to her songs in our best dresses and cardigans. Call it what you want, but I say this is gorgeous. As next year rolls around, "Now That We Don't Talk" will fit perfectly. My mom said it's for the best. I can't be their friend, I'll pay the price of what I lost, which is my depression. I won't tell it to stay stay stay, but to jump in a getaway car, or a mega yacht and go away. We won't talk anymore and that's perfectly fine. So thank you, Taylor. Thank you for being my daylight and saving me. Without your music, I'm not sure what place I would be in. <3