DWIGHT -- Speaking for the first time to her peers about her brain cancer, Tayler Gettinger told Dwight Junior High School students Monday that a positive attitude and belief in yourself can help you deal with any situation. (Herald photo by Adam Nekola)
Taylor Gettinger has been fighting brain cancer for most of her high school career. For the first time, she spoke about it to her own peers Tuesday.
Gettinger spoke as part of a performance by MWAH! (Messages Which Are Hopeful) Performing Arts Troupe at Dwight Township High School. The troupe is made up of teenagers who travel around the state using drama, song and dance to tell true stories to influence teenagers to make right decisions, said Ray Moffitt, founder and director of the group.
MWAH! performed for Dwight's junior high students. The troupe emphasized to the students to push through their challenges and never give up. They asked Gettinger, a Dwight senior, to speak because she was an example of someone who has not given up despite living with brain cancer.
"Two and a half years ago, at age 15, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor," Gettinger said. "Needless to say I was shocked and horrified, but I decided instead of feeling down on myself . . . I was going to feel alive as ever."
For instance, she said, when she started losing her hair from her daily chemo and radiation treatments, rather than getting upset she "chose to focus on the positive" and threw a head-shaving party with her friends.
Gettinger's tumor is inoperable, but is stable. She still goes to school everyday and participates in both the marching band and pep band, despite the fact playing the flute can cause her to have a seizure.
"No matter your situation, it's never beyond your control," Gettinger said. "You can always turn it into a positive experience with a bit of a positive attitude and belief in yourself."
Gettinger had spoken before at Relay for Life events, but never before her peers, she said.
The main message behind MWAH! performances is that you always have a choice, Moffitt said. The performers acted out scenarios of people making both good and bad choices.
In one scene, actor Patrick Foran of Plainfield jumped from the stage to yell at his girlfriend, played by Sarah Saltiel of Willowbrook, for talking to another guy. Foran and Saltiel fight and Foran pushes and hits Saltiel, who begins to run away and then stops and sticks up for herself.
"No! I'm done. I'm done with the pain and the hurt and the lies. I'd never treat you like this if I were a boy," Saltiel said.
Two other members of troupe then sang Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy." Throughout the song Foran repeatedly approaches Saltiel for forgiveness, but she stands her ground.
"That's not really me. I don't and I won't treat someone like that . . .violence is not the answer," Foran tells the audience. "Don't just be another boy or girl. Be different. Care for the ones you love and don't hurt them.
THINK IT THROUGH
Another Dwight resident told his story to encourage the students to think through their choices.
Josh Jahn of Dwight lost his family more than a year ago when a drunk driver blew a stop sign and crashed into Jahn's wife's car as she drove home on Illinois 47. His wife, Amanda Jahn, died instantly, and his two young children were ejected from their car seats and died at Morris Hospital.
Jahn shared a video describing what happened to his family and then spoke to the audience.
"When I saw my two children in the ER, they didn't have a pulse, they weren't breathing. These images are burned into my memory," Jahn said. "All because one person decided to make a choice. She thought she could beat the system.
"I want to believe so bad if the woman who hit my family had someone talk to her she would have not made that bad decision and my family might still be here."
Jahn explained that the students may never get credit for their good decisions, but their bad decisions will affect others.
"Your decision should never be a reason why someone has to go home to an empty house," he said.
The entire presentation moved the students. They laughed, cried and took time to appreciate each other when four students and a teacher were recognized for being "heroes" in their school.
MWAH! will perform next Feb. 22 at Galena Middle School. For more information on the troupe visit www.mwah.net.
