“I had cancer four years ago. I got through chemotherapy, and everything worked out fine. But there were a couple of side effects that hadn’t hit yet. During my second to last semester at AMDA, the side effects hit me hard, and I had to leave school—well, actually somebody told me to get out because I wanted to keep going. I was told that I needed to take care of myself and then I could come back and finish. I am forever thankful for that person because I had no idea what I was thinking.
When I came back to school, one of the different side effects hit me. I thought I was well, but my lungs weren’t. I couldn’t breathe normally for a week or two. At that point, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep on dancing or not. I was reading about the side effects and how they could affect you for the rest of your life. I wasn’t sure about what I would do if I couldn’t dance because dance is a part of me and a part of my language. In the end, I was able to get through it with a lot of help from a lot of people.”