One of my biggest fears about coming to the cherub program was leaving my family and handling adversity away from home. This fear was put to the test during the second week of the camp.

Playing an intense game of basketball with some cherubs, I stepped and felt my left leg give out, followed by a shooting pain. I assumed it would eventually go away. But after a couple hours of swimming, the pain was still there.

A day of hobbling later, I visited the Searle Health Center for Northwestern students and was told to get an MRI. Two anxious days later I learned my fate. A torn medial meniscus.

I would need a knee brace and crutches to move around for the next two weeks. Cherubs is a very intense journalism camp. It is hard work even for those with mobility. I was worried the instructors would be unforgiving, and my peers would leave me “in the dust,” both literally and figuratively.

Instead, it was exactly the opposite.

My instructor, John Kupetz, granted me an extension on the story we were working on. Even though I got the story done on time, it was nice to know he understood my circumstance.

All of my friends did everything they could to make me feel comfortable. Saj Sri-Kumar and Chelsea Katz got me food in the cafeteria when I could not crutch and carry food at the same time. When I missed our friend Matt Silverman’s birthday party because it was too long a walk, Saj brought me back a Gatorade and a Snickers bar.

I’ll admit it. I was scared to come to the program. My friends here at cherubs became my family to me and taught me that I can handle adversity away from home.