“We are just lucky that she is still alive because a lot of people don’t make it and so I’m really grateful. It changed my entire outlook on life,” said senior Kelsey Kee, who says her sister’s fight with cancer created who she is today.

Kee says she believes everything happens for a reason and her sister’s cancer is the reason Kee says she learned to become more confident after learning to follow her own path, even if it means being different. As long as she is staying true to herself and honoring the people she values in her life, Kee says she doesn’t have to worry about what other people think of her.

“I’ve always been told that you need to be more outgoing and you need to try harder to get noticed, and I think that was hard for me because I felt as if I was not good enough if people didn’t notice me,” Kee said “But as I started to get older, I realized that I don’t really care if you don’t know me, so now I am much more confident.”

Being an introverted person has taught her that “everyone has something behind their little mask that they put on,” she said.

“I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Oh, you probably have the perfect life and everything is just so easy for you,’ but in actuality they don’t know what my family has been through,” Kee said.

Kee’s bond with her sister during that period of time made her a stronger person and solidified her dedication to living the best life she can, she said.

“When Alyson was going through all that, I was just so angry and I didn’t understand why all these people didn’t have this happening to them. I walked around thinking, ‘Why am I the one having this happening to me?’ or ‘why is she the one having this happen to her? Why can’t it be that person or that person?’ which is a terrible thing to think, but in that moment you are so upset,” Kee said.

Kee says that the situation forced her to adopt a different mindset. She looks at the positive sides of bad situations now and says she believes that each person is meant to do a certain thing. For her that means focusing on something that makes her happiest: art

“I got into art when I took art foundations my freshman year and it was one of those things where it was like ‘I’ll just take that easy art class,’ but then I got really excited when I did the ceramics part of art foundation,” Kee said.

Kee started channeling her stress and pressures on art to get her mind off of the outside world.

“Honestly, art is my kind of my way of releasing the pressure and anxiety I get from sports, so if [I’m] worried about [something like] a meet that day, I go to art class and it’s a destresser,” said Kee, who is also a varsity golfer.

Dealing with stress is something that Kee is clearly familiar with based on her family situation, but she says art has helped her create a much more positive attitude toward life.

“I don’t believe in going back and changing things because I believe that everything is supposed to happen ,” Kelsey said, “even though it was terrible what she went through, it did make our family stronger.”