By LISA SHEAFFER  

Photo by: Claudia Katz

m I going to die?"

Lying in bed and unable to see, Weslee Sheaffer asked his father this question after awakening in a cold and sterile hospital. He had just undergone 12 intense hours of brain surgery. And although the surgery left him unable to walk, he didn't feel a thing because of the morphine pumping through his veins.

But no amount of the drug was enough to take the sting from the knowledge that he had cancer. Seventeen-year-old Wes was reassured by his father that they would get through it, and they would. However, the process would be a roller coaster ride that would remind Wes every day after to value his life.

It's hard for me to believe that this was my cousin Wes' life seven years ago. Now, he's like any other University of Florida student walking through Turlington Plaza except that every now and then he may ask me to tell him something again, but this time in his good ear. It's exchanges like this that guarantee Wes will always be aware of his past, which he is proud to have survived.>>>