By Ann Cantrell
Staff Writer

Jessica Moon, a former Morgan County High School student and softball player, remembers one day of her life very vividly.
One day in August of 2004, at the beginning of her junior year she was diagnosed with leukemia.  Moon realized something was wrong when after softball practices she would feel extremely tired, so much so that she wanted to go to sleep.
Moon would also feel full after eating only about two bites and suffered from extreme bruising.
“I was bruising really badly because my platelets were low,” Moon said.
On August 16, Moon left school with her father and traveled to a hospital where she underwent several tests including a painful sampling from her bone marrow.
The following Thursday, she was diagnosed with cancer. Several things went through her head once she was diagnosed.
“The first thing I though was, am I going to lose my hair,” said Moon.
After this initial thought she began to wonder why she was struck with this disease and what she did to deserve it.  She also questioned if she would ever be better.
After a few months though, the cancer was in remission and after continued treatment to ensure that the disease did not return, Moon was diagnosed cancer free.  While her life certainly changed after she was diagnosed with leukemia, Moon, now 20 years old, can look forward to her life returning to normal, with a new perspective on life.
When she was diagnosed at the age of 16, Moon had to give up a lot of the aspects of her life.   Besides undergoing several treatments and taking medicine regularly, she was unable to attend school some days and had a teacher come to her house occasionally for lessons.
While she still dressed out for softball games and attended practice, Moon was unable to actually play.
Despite these changes in her life, Moon said she eventually came to believe that there was a reason for everything, including her disease.  One of these reasons may be that God knew she was a strong person and could endure this struggle as an example for other people, said Moon.
With leukemia behind her, Moon plans to attend nursing school at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville next semester if she makes it in.  She plans to be a Maternal Infant Nurse and attend to new born infants.
While she wanted to be a nurse since the beginning of high school—mainly so that she could wear scrubs—her experiences gave her a new understanding and interest in the workings of the human body.
Last December, Moon traveled to Mexico with some friends and said she was able to enjoy her time there without any worries about her previous ailments.
Jessica Moon remembers the day she was diagnosed with leukemia very well, but she says that now she also remembers not to take anything in life for granted as well.