I woke up that morning, just as happy as I can be. School was fun that day, I can remember sitting next to my best friend in lunch. Not only did she trade her food, but for some reason, everyone at the table wanted to join in on the action. That day we sang through the hallways and danced in P.E; just enjoying life as a fifth grader. On this specific day, the playground was the most exciting that I had ever seen in all of my ten years of living. Wall ball was the best game we could ever play. We lost the tennis ball a while back, but through the grace of God the teacher went out and bought a brand new one. It was all bright yellow, smelt just like a new tennis ball. When I tell you this game was the best, it…..was…the….best! (The object of the game was to throw the ball so hard at the wall that someone would touch it as it bounced back. If you touch the ball without catching it, you must run to the wall before someone gets you out.) This day everyone seemed to have the best arm in the league. People that usually got out were tagging people left and right. I was on fire that day, I was getting everyone out. I became the biggest threat of all time. When I say that was the best day ever, it was the BEST DAY EVER, so I thought. That day I would have never thought that my whole life would change is just under 5 minutes. I would have never thought that later on, my life would flash before my eyes in an instant. I would have never thought that such a careless mistake could almost cost me my life.

If Life had a PSA announcement it would go a little something like this:

This is a message from the thing you call life, pay close attention cause "life" will get worse.I will not only take you through so many trials that you won’t even remember your first name, but I will also make you question every religious belief you thought you knew, not once or twice, yep, that’s right, every day you decide you want to wake up in the morning. I will strip all the self-confidence that you thought you had and make you second guess your very existence. I will make you contemplate suicide so many times that you have nothing left to do but to get on your knees and cry out to the God you serve because that’s the only option you have left. I will put you in my mouth, chew you up, and spit you back out like a bad piece of gum.

This has been a PSA on Life. I hope you will enjoy.”

Later on in time I had the most drastic thing happen. I was hit with a backpack. yes, a backpack. you would think that something so minor as a backpack couldn't do much damage but sadly it changed my whole course of life. This backpack ended up hitting me in just the right place so that the five-pound mass that was growing on my liver just so happened to irrupt, and yes, it just so happened that this mass would have cancer inside.

It sounds pretty painful and let me be first to say it was so overwhelming that I wasn't even able to stand up on my own two feet. This pain was so overbearing, I couldn't even talk because it hurt that bad. My parents were told that I wasn't going to live long (just imagine how hard that was for my family).

The hospital visits became more and more constant. By the end of all this, I had a total of four major surgeries and four permanent scars on my body. Through all this I was bold, talked about, bullied and pick on. I began to loose a lot of weight becoming abnormally skinny. I became very weak and tired all the time. You would think that this would be the end of me. But if the devil really wanted me dead he should've killed me before I met Jesus.

I didn't understand why God would put me through such a horrible tragedy at such a young age. I went days questioning if God even existed. Sitting in the hospital you get a lot of time to think. Think about the good, the bad, and the ugly. I never really understood the "why" factor in my equation of life.

Then one I decided to take a look around. It hit me like a sack of potatoes: It could be worse. I was still living, smiling, and enjoying life. There were kids in that hospital that were fighting for their life and a little smile could've have changed everything. After figuring out that all I had to do to make a difference in this world was to smile and encourage, I made it my duty to do so every day.

I have now found my niche in this world. It is my calling to help other and nothings going to stop me from making a difference, and I mean NOTHING. One smile at a time,one child at a time, one testimony at a time.

"And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?" - Mark 8:36