Nina's reflection

BCHS Nina Laracuente
ELA 12/18/07

Expedition Reflective Essay

When I first heard that we were going to be studying cancer, I
actually found it to be quite interesting. Fear didn’t really come to mind, I
had an idea on what cancer was about, but there were so many things I
still didn’t know and wanted to know. I still feel like I don’t know some
things about cancer, but now I feel I know a lot more than before.
The first thing the 11th grade did was to attend kickoff event. We
began with a meeting downstairs in the music room. Wanda told us how
about how her son had fought cancer when he was really young.He was born with a tumor on his head. After that we went back upstairs and talked to other people who had expierence with cancer. One person was the highschool teacher Kelley and the science teacher named Beth. They both told us their stories. We aslo leaned about cancer from the school
nurse Abbey and other people who work at LICH. After everyone talked
about cancer I was really scared and kind of sad. Some of the people
explaining cancer were crying and I felt so bad. I kept that thinking
“What if I ever get cancer?” I’m still afraid of cancer.
In November my crew and I conducted field work and went to two thrift shops that helps people who
have cancer and the Department Of Heath Library. When we went to
the department Of Health Library we had to research the different
cancer we were assigned. I was assigned Leukemia and chemotheremy.
I didn’t get all the information I wanted but I did get alot. One thing I
learned was that leaukemia is diagnosed ten times nore often in adults

than in children. Ihad a lot of fun at the thirft shops. I kept laughing so

much because there was so many unusual things being sold in the stores.

Since I’m in the Living Environment class, our science teacher

assigned us different topics based on our strenths on what we could do.

We were to make projects based on the topics assigned. I wasn’t too

worried about my topic, but I really had no idea what project I was going

to make. While doing the project I learned many things. I learned that

cells have a lifespan and have the abilitly to divide is through its

telomeres, stuctures that are found at the ends of chromosomes. When

normal cells go through cycles of growth and development, their telomeric

dna gets shorter. Cancer cells don’t allow this to happen, they make

the telomeres continue to divide making cancer immortal. My project

is a text project explaining how cancer becomes immortal. After doing

this project I thought that my work wasn’t enough. My friends told me it

was fun, but I feel that I could of done more.

If we have another expedition I want to be able to do more

work and spend more time. I really do want to help with things and be

proud of what I do. Hopefully during the next expedition, I ‘ll actually be

proud of my work.

I’ve learned so much form this cancer expedition and I hope that

one day all my questions about cancer will be answered. I could finally

say that I have an understanding on what people go through when they

are fighting this disease and I hope that whoever has cancer continues to

fight and not give up.