My little Sister Samantha just graduated from Highlands High Schoon on June 9th and it was a great accomplishment for her.

Samantha has always loved basketball, she's played it ever since I can remember, these past four years have been rough. She started having bad back aches in middle school. The back aches turned into major pain in high school for her. Samantha was fortunate enough to make the basketball team at highlands, and then to find out, she had to have surgery on her back to help her with this pain. So she sat out her junior season sitting on the sidelines cheering her teammates on, attending all practices and games, even though she couldn't play. She had the surgery in March of 2008. That was a long recovery.
This year was a heartbreaker for Sam. We had thought that this surgery would allow her to play basketball one last season, but we were wrong. The doctor had explained to us that there could be one complication from the surgery, and of course it happened to my little sister. So she was scheduled to have surgery again in June of this year after graduation and all the graduation parties, but the pain just kept getting worse. So she had to have surgery in May while school was still in session. She was hoping she'd be able to walk at graduation, and she recovered well, and was able to participate in the graduation ceremony.
This girl has been through so much, she pushed through everything, trying to get back to her basketball career, but instead she survived the pain and cheered on everyone else while simply watching from the sidelines.
Congradulations Sam! You deserve it!

-Heather