Growing up the last of five children, I had both the privilege and the burden of watching my older siblings. One current throughout my family's life was basketball. I followed my brothers' footsteps and worked hard to be an All-State basketball player in high school, earning a spot on the McNeese State University basketball team. I sat out my first year in college and then joined the team my second. It was rough; constant pain in my knees, achilles tendons, not to mention three badly sprained ankles, made it impossible to compete like I wanted to. I turned to drinking and the night life of a college athlete to assuage my frustration in knowing that my basketball career, everything I had worked so hard to attain as an athlete, was seemingly out of my control.

On a night in February, 1999, everything changed. I was working on some homework in the computer lab at school when suddenly the most violent of shakes hit me. I tried to sleep that night, bundled up in layers upon layers of clothes, but I couldn't. I know now that had I gone to sleep, the poison in my blood would have reached my heart and killed me.

I didn't fall asleep, though, and my trainer and assistant coach took me to the emergency room. My hand was swelling, and that night was maybe the worst of my life. The pain was relentless, and the nurses could not administer any stronger medication without the approval of a doctor. I didn't know how fatal this disease could have been at the time as I do now, but I finally passed out that night somehow knowing my life would never be the same again.

I spent the next two weeks in the hospital. Doctors were in and out initially, and the head of the Center of Disease Control said he'd never seen a pathogen take over somebody's body so quickly. Monday afternoon I'm practicing with the basketball team. Five hours later I'm in the hospital fighting for my life.

I changed in those two weeks in the hospital. I watched my mother cry and the outpouring of support I had from family and friends. I realized that I didn't like the direction my life was taking, and decided that it was my obsession with succeeding in basketball and making my family proud that was taking me away from everything important in my life. I quit the team that spring. They say quitters never win. Well, I know with full confidence that had I not quit, I would have lost and lost big. I would not be the person I am today.

I am now a teacher at a Catholic high school and a writer. At the core of everything I do is a passion for life and a belief that there is something greater guiding us. The work my students and I do in the classroom can be magical when everyone works together toward a common goal. My characters in my stories must go through the same things I went and still go through, because it is through them that I work through some of the issues I still struggle with. God can't do it alone. I can't do it alone. I believe that one must constantly be working toward a balance of pushing hard and having faith in God to be truly successful in life and beyond.