 I went to school every day and like I was surrounded by kids but like felt like I was the only kid in school. And then like anxiety was like really new for me, like the panic attacks were new. So when I would be like sitting in class I'd be sitting there and then my heart would just start racing and I'd be like, I need to get out, I need to get out, like I felt trapped in my own body and I felt like I had no control, like I lost it. After taking her to specialist after specialist it was finally determined that she suffered from anxiety and major depressive disorder. Junior to like the beginning of my senior year was like rough. It was really rocky of like I had really really good days where like I thought I was totally better and I was like in the home stretch and then I had like days where it all came crashing down. There were days where I had no strength whatsoever and I was in bed just like praying it would all end. With not being able to get to practice being in and out of the hospital, really just having a difficult time getting out of her room and getting out of her bed. She lost strength and she had to let gymnastics go. Some people thought that this was just some sort of act so she did lose some friends. Your high school years you think of going to parties and it's all about friends and she missed a lot of that. There was days where I was like I'm gonna stay alive for like my mom. There was days I'm gonna stay alive for my best friend because her birthday's next week. Like sometimes it was just like little like events like if I had like a sweet 16 coming up for one of my friends like it would be like alright let's hold off till then. Can we remember at one of the lowest points for her asking me if she could if she could go. I saw her suffering and I knew that we had to work to get out of this. In like December I was supposed to be sent away to like a residential for like six months and my like my insurance was gonna cover it my bed was ready and like they were about to send me and I was like hold on like I want one more chance like I don't want to go yet. Seniors definitely when like everything just started coming together like I was applying for colleges like I had friends I started sports again like I was doing well in school. When she was feeling better there is a society for the prevention of teenage suicide and she joined that and she became an active member. When I was going through everything that I did I felt so alone and like no one was there for me so like I've made a promise myself like I'll make sure no one ever feels alone like that they always feel like they have someone. One thing that I remember in particular that I brought to school was we had a social media like campaign day where like on Twitter people would like tweet like hashtag like you're not alone and like save teens and then Instagram like people would put that hashtag like it was a huge day for us. People come to her you know when they're having struggles and she directs them in the right place. So she's done a beautiful job with that. One girl came up to me like the last week of school and said like hey I really liked what you did I want to do the Society for Prevention of Teen Suicide like how do I do it? Like I had kids coming up to me saying that my social worker Melissa was like hey you could probably be valedictorian and I was like I'm going to do it. I was like at school every day even though I was sick. I was like my attendance is going to affect like me being valedictorian. I was doing all my homework like studying like going above and beyond to make sure I was valedictorian. And then that happened. I got into schools. I got into seven out of eight that I applied to. I'm going to St. Joseph's University for my freshman year and I'll be majoring in biology on the pre-medical track. She fought with tenacity and grit when she gives of herself when she helps others that gives her strength. She is strong. She's a fighter. She is caring and beautiful and her happiness, her smile just makes me just shine. It's beautiful to see her.