Good evening, everyone. My name is Keylin Salazar.
In January 2020, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I was just two months away from turning 15. I was right at the beginning of my high school years when I was told my life would change forever. At such a young age, I didn’t know how to react or feel. The second I heard the word “cancer,” I froze. My world stopped, and the moment I realized this was all real, I broke into tears.
During treatment, I had many days that were incredibly hard to get through. But what kept me going was the love and support that surrounded me. When I first started treatment, I remember spending a whole day constantly vomiting. In tears, I looked at my mom and told her I couldn’t do it anymore. But she never left my side, and she kept reassuring me that everything would be okay. Everyone’s support kept me going when I wanted to give up the most.
Being so young, I never thought I would find the strength to push through my treatment, but I discovered an inner strength I didn’t know I had. One year into my journey, I was also diagnosed with avascular necrosis in my hips and later, in my shoulders. This is a very painful condition where bone tissue dies because it isn’t getting enough blood. Because of this, I lost my ability to walk and had to rely on wheelchairs and canes. I couldn’t do anything physically. At that age, it was so hard watching everyone around me playing sports while I had to sit out because my body just wouldn’t let me participate. The only way to fix this was through total joint replacements. A few months after finishing cancer treatment, I had to get both of my hips and my shoulders replaced.
Going through those years of intense physical pain taught me so much about my own resilience. My family, my friends, and my healthcare team supported me so deeply through those dark times, and they are the reason I was able to hold onto hope.
I always wanted to go to college, but after my diagnosis, college was the last thing on my mind. Since I was only a freshman in high school, my only real goal was just to graduate on time with my class. With a lot of patience and support, my high school helped me reach that goal. I didn’t actually start focusing on college until the very end of my treatment, when I finally realized that a higher education was actually possible for me.
Walking onto my college campus for the first time filled me with so much gratitude. It took chemotherapy, immense patience, and time to get to college after battling an illness that can change a life forever. It took so much hard work to get to where I am today, and I am so grateful for the wonderful people who have supported me along the way.
This journey also grew my passion to help other people who are going through the same difficulties I went through. Today, I am proud to say I am a student at UConn, pursuing my dream of becoming a Pediatric Social Worker. I want to provide the same care and support for families that my own healthcare team did for me. My social workers always made sure I was okay, and because of those wonderful people, I am now chasing this career.
Receiving this scholarship means so much to me. When you get a cancer diagnosis, your whole life changes, and for a long time, you are just trying to get through each day. Standing here today as a college student at UConn, studying to become a pediatric social worker, feels amazing. The financial help is a huge relief, but honestly, the best part is knowing that there are people who believe in me. It reminds me that I am not just a person who had cancer. I am a person with a bright future.
This scholarship shows that there is a beautiful life waiting for everyone on the other side of all this. When you are stuck in the hospital, it is so easy to feel like that is your whole world and to forget about the future. This award is proof that cancer can pause your life, but it cannot steal your dreams. It shows these brave kids that their story doesn’t end in a hospital bed. There are college campuses, new friends, and big goals waiting for them.
To all survivors and patients, I want to say how incredibly proud I am of all of us. If this sickness taught us anything, it’s that we don’t have to figure out our whole lives at once. We just have to take it one single day at a time. What we went through was so heavy. But look at where you are today. You carried that heavy weight, and you kept going anyway. We have a kind of strength that most people our age don’t understand. Use that strength to chase exactly what you want in life, and never give up on your dreams.
Thank you for having me.
