CRYSTAL CLEAR: A SECOND CHANCE
Crystal Fuerte
Dr. Robert Cowser, Faculty Mentor
St. Lawrence University McNair Scholars Program
A fourteen-year-old Dominican girl is diagnosed with sarcoma of the liver. This autobiographical paper describes the young girl’s emotional, physical, and psychological struggles and the chemotherapy and radiation treatments she endured. One aspect describes the social symbolic value of the female’s hair in this culture and how, without it, a young girl might possibly question her identity and/or her sexuality when she is constantly mistaken for a boy. It is narrated in the first person except during the five weeks she was in a coma, when it is narrated in the third person from the perspective of the parents. Descriptive research has been added to the narrative in an effort to help the reader have a better understanding of the procedures (e.g., CAT scan, biopsy) that were performed.