I have no doubt she shows the world anything is possible.. she suceeds when many of us even fail to begin.. or try.. thanks for the kind words Lisa

That is so beautiful! Your daughter has a wonderful heart! THANK YOU for sharing her speech. It blessed me a great deal today. -Shakeira

Had to share this .. daughter trying out to give High school gradualtion Speech made me cry we are hopimg she will get picked they are picking 3 people, try outs are today Welcome facility, parents, and fellow graduates! We have hit another milestone in our journey of life. Some of you graduates will be going to top elite colleges. Some will go to UC & State colleges. Many will be going to our local colleges or perhaps even a trade school. Some will serve our country in the armed forces. Some are not quite sure what you are going to be known for in life. You all should be congratulated on making a wise choice & investment in your future. Today, my speech is directed to those whole felt you were quote "underdogs" here at Liberty High School. What I meant by that is "Making it to graduation by the skin of your teeth". Ok, perhaps you are not in the running for Valid Victorian since usually only one person usually receives that noble award and I did not see on the program that they were handing out 600 Valid Victorians awards, but the fact we are all graduating is a victorious validation itself. We still make up the class of 2008. Don't we all matter? As former President Clinton said in his commemorative graduation speech at MIT class of 1998 "America believes the spark of possibility burns deep within in every child that ordinary people can do extraordinary things." close quote. I have what is called Landau Kleiffner Syndrome. A form of Autism, which affects the way I talk and write due to seizures. My parents told me never give up & I can do anything you want out of life and no one can stop me, from achieving what I want out of life. I have learned from an early age that life can be hard and can give you bumps in the road, but with allot of hard work it will eventually pay off. Here at Liberty we grew, learned, to seek out and were wondering what we were going to do in our life. We have looked for inspiration in the world around us. We started to set goals and one of them was to graduate from high school. I know some people were thinking perhaps college was not a possibility and college was not in my future due to my disability but I thought differently I guess I owe that to Autistic way of thinking. We can be stubborn. I decided I was going to college to study animal science and took college prep courses here at Liberty. I was lucky enough to go to college even early before many of my fellow class mates .I choose early opt out of high school. I am so excited to be able to come back to be with my own class to graduate. I still have seizures today. Just a few weeks ago, I was in Mercy Southwest Hospital ICU & was Medi Vac to UCLA ICU. My seizures became status. Again, another temporary set back to my education, however, I am determined and I have come back to continue with my college courses and I stand before you speaking at our High school graduation. Who would have thought, I would be doing this as a person labeled as Autistic. But I am not letting Autism stop me. I have Autism but Autism does not have me. To my fellow class mates when we walk out into the world look at the world as I do unfiltered and full of beautiful colors and beautiful sounds. You really don't want to miss anything filtering the world. The world around us will inspire great things to come. We have come a long way from our freshman years. When entering Liberty High we all were so nervous of what we thought people would think of our clothes shoes or how are we going to pass the California Exit exam. But we made it though those four long hard years. We will remember all those fun times we had at Liberty High School the Prom, football games and of course the lousy cafeteria food. My message is simple Liberty High school classes of 2008 go out into world find inspiration in world around you. Never give up and when life gives you an stumbling block look up and look ahead and alter the course if you have to or buckle down and re-think and of all else fails make up new dreams and new goals. As Walt Disney said "follow your dreams" close quote. Liberty class of 2008, we did it!!!

Hey, Dee, anytime you're feeling discouraged, go back to your blog and look at all your pictures, seeing where you started and where you are now. You are doing and looking great!!! I wouldn't worry about it as long as you're losing weight - whether it be 6 ounces or 5 pounds (and for Pete's sake don't go near the scale when you're PMSing!) You are going to look positively AWESOME when you have your plastic surgery, because you're looking pretty darn good now. (I love that red and black vest top you wore in the Halloween pictures.) (Cute family, too, by the way.) I think we all have those fat days and thin days. It comes with the territory, I imagine. 120 pounds is a great loss for a year out. Take care, Marcia

Hugs and kisses back at ya Dee - I know the feeling, I keep some 3x jammies that I love so much but they do make me feel pretty strange (in a comfy sloppy sort of way!) You're doing great and us long-term losers have to stick together Inky