Senior checklist: 

• Take senior pictures 
• Pick the perfect homecoming date
• Decorating homecoming overalls
• Getting accepted into your dream college 
• Going to a football game
• Buying the perfect prom dress
• Walking across the stage and accepting diploma 

For senior Lauren Wright, one more item needs to be added towards her checklist. Beating cancer. 

Since September, Wright has continuously fought stage 3 Rhabdomyosarcoma. Next Saturday at graduation, she will be among the field of purple gowns at Bernard Johnson Coliseum at Sam Houston State University, changing the narrative as she inspires not only the people that know her best, but everyone who meets her. 

“In the beginning of September, I noticed a hard lump on my body,” Lauren said.”I thought it would go away on its own, but then it started to hurt so I told my parents. My mom took me to Urgent Care, and when they couldn’t tell what it was, they sent us to the hospital. The doctor thought it was a cut that became infected, so they gave me some antibiotics.”

 It took 10 days for Lauren to head back to the doctor.

“However after 10 days, it was still there and since I ran out of antibiotics, the pain soon returned,” Lauren said. “After a surgery, it was revealed that it was a hard mass with no liquid inside. That was when the doctors first told us of the possibility of it being cancerous and what my life would look like during treatment if it was cancer.”

While the high school was buzzing with news of homecoming and fall break, Lauren found out her diagnosis.

“We wouldn’t get our answer until the beginning of October when I underwent a procedure called a needle biopsy,” she said. “The procedure allowed surgeons to get a tissue sample from the mass and look at it under a microscope so that they could quickly tell if it was indeed cancer.”

According to mayoclinic.com Rhabdomyosarcoma starts as a cells in soft tissue and most common in children. Treatment of the cancer involves surgery and chemotherapy. Starting chemo has changed her life in numerous ways: fatigue, hair loss, nausea, vomiting and digestive issues, even changing where she has to go to school for her senior year. 

“It has affected my senior year in a few ways,” Lauren said. “At first, I tried to keep things as normal as possible but it became harder to move across campus fast enough during passing periods, and my endurance and stamina weakened severely. I soon also found that I was losing my ability to focus and remember things that happened a few days before or sometimes a few minutes before.”

 Parents should never have to watch their child suffer. Lauren’s mom learned she had to take in and cherish the little moments.

“This has been the most difficult experience of my life,” Lauren’s mother Emily Wright said. “There is no worse feeling than to see your child in pain and know there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. However, this experience has given me a new appreciation for the little things. I enjoy family dinners in a whole new way.  I love hearing my children argue and giggle like never before.”

Emily is in awe of her daughter and her strength.

“I have also had the privilege of seeing my daughter grow into an incredibly resilient and strong young lady,” she said. “I cannot believe how she has attacked her cancer with beautiful determination. I am in complete awe of her strength, determination, and faith.” 

Protecting a daughter is a father’s job. For Lauren’s dad, this is the hardest moment in his life. 

“I lost my father to cancer five years ago,” father Brian Wright said. “At the time, I felt that was the worst experience of my life. When Lauren received her diagnosis, I realized that I was terribly mistaken. I have faced fear before; but the fear of losing my daughter surpassed any other fear I had ever known.”

Brian and the entire family have looked to their faith for strength.

“Watching Lauren lean into her faith for the courage and the strength to fight her battle inspired me to lean into my own faith,” Brian said. “It’s not every day that a father learns such a valuable lesson from his child. Lauren has inspired me daily to place my hope in God, and to do my best with the things I can control instead of worrying about the things I can’t.” 

Standing in Lauren’s shoes would be unimaginable. She has changed almost every aspect of her life. Including the chemo that has changed her diet, movement and her very last year of high school. 

“To ensure that I get enough calories, I had to get what is called a G-Tube inserted in my stomach so that I can have a special formula pumped into my stomach so that nausea from eating regular food will not affect me,” Lauren said. “When my legs became weakened and I would lose my balance, I was given a walker so that I could move around without being worried about hurting myself.”

Cancer has transformed senior year for Lauren. Knowing life is about to change is a terrifying fate, but normally a change would be going to college in a different place, not learning that your toughest senior assignment is fighting cancer.

“Eventually I had to be moved to the homebound program to protect my health since my immune system was extremely weak and other students tended to come to school sick,” Lauren said. “Within a month, I went from thinking I would have a normal senior year to being diagnosed with stage 3 Rhabdomyosarcoma.”