During the summer after loosing my only real friend, I ended up taking a turn for the worse with my health. I developed Scoliosis, which limited my walking ability, and started to get Pneumonia every few months. All the while my health was going down the drain, I was trying to make amends with my friend. But I had a very hard time doing so because I'd also lost my computer and could only E-mail her from the library once a week.

I must have really upset her because she simply did not want to make peace, and when school resumed, I tried one last attempt; hoping that maybe in the presence of a counciler we could resolve things. Again, she did not want to, so I sent her a "final" E-mail good-bye and tried not to think of her afterwords. But I often did anyways.

School quickly became a burden because my back was so bad, walking hurt. And I was frequently absent with lung infections. As a precaution, the school nurse made me use a wheelchair in the building. I was depressed and in some of the worst health of my life, and it only got worse as I continued school.

I was highly determined to get my diploma though. So many of my family had dropped out of school, and I wanted to restore the family name the best I could. But it was getting harder and harder to attend school with my health the way it was.

Around the second trimester of that school year, my friend had finally replied to my "good-bye" E-mail. And as fate would have it, we ended up talking regularly again, and on good terms. It was one of very few things that made me feel better in this hard time of my life. Over time, me and my friend got close to one another again, but so much had changed. My health prevented me from arranging to see each other and by winter, it got even worse yet.

Somewhere around January or February, me and my friend had officially gotten back together. Not only that, but we were closer then before. Sadly though, time was worsening my health and by mid February, I reached the lowest point of my life with my health.

I had a doctor's appointment at Riley then, and on the way I got sick. But this was no ordinary sickness, I could hardly breathe! When we got to the hospital, I was taken to the Emergency Room, where they found I had a very bad case of Pneumonia. I was having such a hard time breathing (It was like breathing through a small straw) that for the first time in my life, I thought I'd reached the end of my days. But they gave me enough antibiotics and had me on a respirator to save me.

The aftermath of this sickness was quite a lot. I'd been in the hospital four hours away fro home for nearly three weeks unexpectedly, which cost me and my dad a lot in finances. I'd also missed a date my girlfriend and I had set for a long time. And it took a while before I could get a laptop to barrow to contact her. Then when I got home, I missed an additional two weeks of school, giving me a lot of makeup work to do.

Somehow, I managed to get caught up in school. But we never quite recovered from the financial blow we took. Bills were piled so high we just couldn't keep up with them. And my health was never the same after that. I could no longer sit up or bend over to write for long, which made doing schoolwork next to impossible for me. I was beginning too think school was no longer worth the harm to my health anymore.