Emma Aviles is a sophomore at Lewis-Palmer High School that struggles juggling school, health and sports. Her medical issues get in the way of her living a “normal” life.

“I want to be remembered for the person who was able to help a lot of people. I plan to become a doctor or therapist to help people. Because of my childhood and how I’ve grown up in hospitals and just having the right doctor was able to help me through all of it and if I had a bad doctor it just made me not want to be there even more, so I just want to be able to help people in that way. I ended up in the hospital in eighth grade it’s like a part of it all goes back to my medical stuff, and so I ended up in the hospital and I felt like if I pushed I probably could have still done school and probably still could have done online school and then I would have been two years advanced right now instead of one. I stick to a strict schedule, for my health, I make sure I eat all the right foods and drink enough water. And if I’m feeling the slightest bit off, I’ll tell someone just so that they know and then for school and cheer, I know my cheer schedule so I’ll just plan my school around that and all my activities. I don’t have free time, so it’s a lot of stress and pressure that’s put on me. School is probably the most stressful. It makes it a lot worse because I end up in the nurse’s office a lot more with anxiety attacks, I’ll pass out a lot more just because stress makes everything worse for it. It’s a part of my medical stuff so it’s something that I’ve had for a while so my doctors know about it. So it’s just kind of normal now, although it may not be normal to other people, it’s normal for me. I would picture other people’s normal life to be, like people can run, I can’t run. People can eat certain things, I’m on a strict diet and people can eat whatever they want. I can’t hike with my friends, sometimes swimming is hard for me, just activities are harder for me. For a normal person, everything is just easier sometimes. There’s things I definitely miss before my medical stuff a, and some sports I that I used to be able to play. I do miss those but I don’t think I would change it because I’ve been through a lot more, and I have experienced more, and I just know more. I know how to handle things better. Because of my medical conditions, I’m very wobbly, I can’t stand for long, I pass out a lot. If you don’t look from the perspective of someone else and what they’re going through, you may not understand and they may get mad at that. For example, if I were to just assume what someone’s going through, and just make a decision for them on what they can and can’t do, then it’s, like, harder. So for my student body, taking away our phones in the halls, if there’s times where I want to just go on my phone, so I could tell someone like what’s going on and text my parents. And if they don’t think of the perspective of others then in a different way, then some people may get angry at them for that. My parents work all the time, they don’t really understand what’s going on so if I don’t keep in touch with my parents then it’s just harder for everyone. I just like helping people and giving people that support. I guess I just didn’t have that growing up, if I didn’t have a lot of help and I just want to help others more. My dad taught me to help people if it’s needed that badly, but not the way that I try to help people. He didn’t teach me that.”