Everything happens for a reason.

Junior Lily Newton has always been an active person but with her recent medical condition, she’s had to cut back on some activities in order to rest. 

With Newton’s condition, it gives her headaches, which can make doing certain sports a tougher task to do than before. As someone who was very sport and activity centered, she had to change her schedule in order to rest more. Even if there are struggles with her new condition, she’s always been someone who has believed  everything happens for a reason. So right now, Newton is doing her best to continue school and her sports normally while taking more time to rest than she did before. 

Newton was recently diagnosed with intracranial pressure, which meant that she had a tear in her head near her brain from doing an activity and it caused brain fluid to leak from her nose. This caused different problems like dizziness, vision problems, and constant headaches. It’s exceedingly rare in 16-year-olds but she’s been living with it for three months now and is finding different ways to make the headaches she has better. “I have used my ability to put in my earplugs for classes because my headaches cause me to have sensitive hearing and photosensitivity. I’ve used earplugs in class because the noise causes me not to focus as well on my work,” Newton said. 

Doing well in school and pushing herself with her grades has always been something Newton has done. “My vision played a huge role in not being able to do any work on a piece of paper, I could only do work on a computer so I could zoom in and I had to also get more pairs of glasses and get a stronger prescription,” Newton said. She’s had to make certain adjustments with what school work she can do in order to be able to actually do it and keep up her grades. It might be something new but Newton has been successful in keeping her grades up and still do well academically. 

Sports and being active is a very big part of her family life. Newton has been a part of the colorguard team and track team since 2019. Other than being on sports teams, in her free time she liked to do active hobbies, like practicing colorguard and running, but she’s had to cut back on some of that in order to fit her new needs. “When I have the opportunity to rest, I usually do. Instead of at night doing an activity like longboarding or skateboarding or biking or running like I usually do, I can sit down and do one of my hobbies like beading or drawing or something like that,” Newton said. She now tries to focus on resting more when she can but still be involved and challenge herself while running and in colorguard. “I’ve just been trying and focusing on taking a lot of rest time for myself but besides that, full throttle,” Newton said. 

Being positive is the best way that Newton is dealing with her condition. “I’m a pretty firm believer in everything happens for a reason because I’m a Christin and God makes everything happen for a reason so obviously if this happened then, I think, God is trying to teach me a lesson out of it,” Newton said. She is very religious and when she found out about her condition, it only helped her faith with God. “So far he’s taught me who my real friends are, who my supportive friends are and who are the people I should keep around and be grateful for in this time because those are the people that have stuck with me through this situation,” Newton said. Her relationships, either with God or her friends and family, have helped her through this and showed her who is really there for her. 

People such as her parents and her colorguard team have been a big support during this time, even if it;s just to check up on her after a practice. “My color guard team and my coaches have also been giant supporters. I love them to bits. They ask me how I am, they check up on me, they just make sure I’m keeping in check with my health while I’m doing what I love,” she said. She is very grateful to have such a loving and supportive group of people to help her through this time and show her who really cares about her. 

For her condition, Newton has been to multiple doctor visits in order to get medication to help her headaches. They’ve been trying to find the best thing to help her to heal and continue doing what she loves.  “It was really sad for me to see the color guard performing and doing all the practices and everything while I was in a hospital bed,” Newton said about a color guard competition she had to miss in order to get new medication. Although she’s had to change some things about her life like doing less extraneous activities, she’s still able to be active safely and continue her sports. Even if this condition was something that looked like it might have put a stop in her path before, Newton is still pushing through and learning how to live with it normally in her everyday life.