Just a few months can shake up your whole world -- forever. as told to jessica press
"I BEAT CANCER"
"One Friday at school, I started the day feeling fine but by sixth period, I could barely walk and thought it was the flu. But when my fever went up to 104.4°, the doctor did some extra tests. And within the next few days, I got my diagnosis: I had acute myelogenous leukemia, an uncommon, aggressive blood cancer.
I had planned to spend the summer traveling and camping -- I couldn't wait for school to be out and the summer to start -- but now I was stuck in a hospital. Cancer felt like it was taking over my entire body. I'd lost my eyebrows. I'd lost my eyelashes. My skin looked gray, and I was too thin for even the smallest size clothes.
In my most scared moments, I'd tell myself that when I got out, I'd someday do something awesome in spite of my cancer, like get into Brown, my dream college. And finally, after an exhausting eight months of treatments, just as the summer came to an end, I got the news: My cancer was gone, and I was allowed to leave the hospital.
Now the doctors think it's unlikely my cancer will come back, but I know a kid with the same thing who had a relapse. Still, I'm determined to show the world how much I can do. I started practicing karate again, and I want to get my black belt before I graduate to prove that cancer can't hold me back."
-KIM, 17, LAFAYETTE, CO
"I JOINED THE ARMY"
"One day at 4 a.m. during the summer after my senior year of high school, I found myself wet, freezing, and exhausted -- and feeling stronger and prouder than ever. I was training as a soldier in the Israeli army and had just finished a grueling drill session -- I had woken up in the middle of the night with my fellow soldiers, and together we picked up a massive telephone pole, walked down a dune of sand with it, then did push-ups, sprints, and sit-ups, before heading back up the dune with the pole. The point of the drill was to get us to work as a team. But even more than that, it showed me how much more I was capable of doing than I'd ever thought I could. And that's exactly why I'd joined the Israeli military in the first place. My whole life, I'd been really tiny -- I'm barely five feet and under 100 pounds -- and really shy. Serving in the Israeli army was something I had been thinking about for years: My dad served in the Israeli army and I have a lot of family in Israel, so it has played a huge role in my life. By senior year, I was so sick of no one noticing me, I decided that joining the army would be the best way to force myself out of my shell. Now that I have trained hundreds of soldiers, worked with M-16s and tanks, and am a war veteran, I look back and can't believe I was ever the girl who got butterflies in her stomach anytime she had to speak up in class. "
-SHARON, 22, NEW CITY, NY
"I GAVE UP PARTYING"
"I was a huge party girl my freshman and sophomore years of high school -- I drank and smoked, and some of my friends did drugs. We'd start on Thursday nights and go through the whole weekend -- and my mom never minded that I was such a free spirit. She grew up with really strict parents, so she wanted to be the opposite. But my sophomore year, my mom had a massive stroke, leaving her unable to say more than ah and mah, and she couldn't use most of the right side of her body. Just before the summer, she had to move away so she could get 24/7 care. I felt like my entire world was falling apart. But I realized that the best way to feel close to my mom was to live the most productive life I could, so I decided to turn things around. That summer, I gave up drinking and smoking and going out all the time, and I got a job. The changes paid off: I went from almost failing out of school to getting A's and B's. My mom was able to come to my graduation, and the tears in her eyes as she saw me get my diploma were all I needed to know I'd made the right choices."