It all started when I and my sister went off and we started to head to school one day. I was a senior and this was her Freshman year. At school, I was a thought of as the big jock because I played on the football team. My sister Shyanne was the one who always brightened the room when she walked in. When U walked in it wasn't hard seeing that this was the last week for football. Everyone was in football jerseys and had some much school spirit. This was the day that colleges would be looking at the high school students for colleges. This was such an excitement for me I was so excited. Most of my family came to support and went to go with my sister to join her in the stand to go watch me play in the football game. When the game started later that night I played my heart out for my family and judges. Everyone rumored that I was the best quarterback the school had ever seen. I always got all the points for the team. I was a team player everyone loved me I was the best and because I always shared the fame with my teammates. Coach mentioned to the officials that I was the most valuable team player and the most loved team player on the team. 

Finally, the time came when it was my time to show off all my skills.  As we were playing the game it was going great and nothing was supposed to happen like this but I suddenly got struck by the defense and didn't think anything of it and just got back up like nothing happened. This was normal, though.  I always pushed myself and kept playing to my fullest. It seemed nothing knew I had always got hurt but nothing too major that I couldn't play. So I continued on playing the game I played all the right cards and fulfilled the officials with all my potential. Finally, all the hard work paid off the following weeks later I started getting all these letters from different colleges like from MSU and ISU. Then the absolute best news came and I got a full ride scholarship for football at MSU. Then suddenly it had all changed when I started getting some painful pressure in his hip at football practice later that year and despite the pain, the coach kept pushing me to do more and more even when I couldn't even do it. 

Even though I knew it hurt I pushed myself to keep going. Now I wish I wouldn't have. Later that evening after I got home I went to bed early exhausted and got some good rest. My sister woke me up saying “Josh we have to get to school!” I scrambled to get dressed and we headed off to school. When we were on our way my hip locked up and we got into a horrible car accident and my sister was injured really bad she broke a few bones because it turned into a 6 car pile up.  That's wasn't the worst part, we got to the hospital and they examined me and figured out why my hip had locked up. It was a tumor growing on my hip. It was terrible this was my year! I was going to college on a scholarship I was planning to make it to the NFL. That was my dream. That dream seemingly slipped away from me in all the chaos.

The tumor turned up being cancerous and I needed to get surgery asap. If it got any bigger I would have to be put into a full body cast. The tumor would paralyze me from the waist down. The doctors wouldn't perform the surgery without a 10 percent copay down. My family wasn't the richest around we couldn't afford that.This is why I was always so thankful for my sister being around. She started a campaign to help raise money for me to get surgery. Then the next football game all the money was going towards my doctor bills and we had so many donations.

It was wonderful, I ended up getting my surgery 2 weeks later and missed a few months of school. Finally, after all the weeks of staying home, I was ready to come back and continue my journey.  I was sitting in the living room wishing my parents would sit down and have a meal together in the morning. I mean we are usually always so busy and rushing none of us had time to get together in the morning as a family. I didn't know what I expected. I thought maybe if I had gotten up when they did maybe, even made a breakfast for everyone we could all sit down and talk. Something made me think they would acknowledge me but everyone was so busy they didn't even notice I wanted to catch up on what tonite was. Everyone got dressed and walked right past me. It was my 1st game back from surgery. I wanted everyone to be there I was about to go to college in a few weeks. Then suddenly everything changed when I got to school I got huge hugs from everyone it was good to see everyone cared and missed me till the incident happened where my hip gave out again and I fell down the stairs. I screeched out this horrible sound and the ambulance came to pick me up. When my sister seen me she knew was something was wrong she said she could see the pain in my eyes. We got to the hospital and they ran tests on my hip again they missed it the tumor was cancerous I felt my life just being flushed away. I started balling into tears we couldn't afford all the bills on top of college. It wasn't a choice we had we had to get rid of cancer if not I mean I would die. It was the hardest time of my life I had never experienced so much pain. As we went on thru the chemo to get get rid of cancer.

Although there were days when I felt bad, there were no problematic side effects. The third day after treatment was always difficult; I had achiness and fatigue. But I was still able to work on my school work. I followed the suggestions of the nutritionist and naturopath on my Care Team, which I think helped. I felt losing my hair was difficult. I had long hair, for a boy and it felt very devastating to watch it fall out. I have to thank my sister for helping me over that hurdle. Even though I felt self-conscious and didn’t like the way I looked, she reassured me all the time that I was just a better 2.0 version of Me. Above all, what I came to value most during my treatment was the phenomenal care I received. The way I was treated and  I don’t mean just medically but as a person, I felt that I was so special and different to what I would have expected at other medical facilities. My infusions of chemotherapy had to start earlier than was expected. The chemotherapy nurse said my sister could stay with me until the treatment was finally done at three o’clock in the morning. All of my needs were met, down to the smallest details. Making the process smoother and easier. When you are coping with cancer, there is so much to deal with. Having your family buy your side the whole time was the only thing that ever seemed to matter to me at that point. My parents also tried to never let me see them worry in order to help me strong. A cancer diagnosis can be fearful. From the minute you hear the news, you are wondering, “am I going to make it?” Why did this have to happen to me? Even though it's seemed like my world was crashing down things changed for the better . I recovered a few months later after the intense therapy. Graduated and still accepted my scholarship at MSU and even though cancer should have stopped me from continuing my career in football I still pursued my dream of going professional with the doctor approval. I played great all the way thru my college years kept my GPA higher than any other student in my class and made valedictorian and at the end of my 4-year term, I was asked to join to Indiana Colts to play as Quarterback for them. I pursued my dreams of becoming a professional football player after all. My story should always inspire other to keep shooting for your goals no matter how impossible they may seem that they are.