teenLook #6 - November 2019 - Arizona Skeoch
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teenLook #6 - November 2019 - Arizona Skeoch

Remembering our Veterans is the focus of this November issue. Remembering our Veterans is the focus of this November issue.

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VIENNA maryce TEENLOOK featured story The sensation in my legs suddenly disappeared; I literally thought I was going to collapse. I could feel my heart knocking against my ribs with crippling anticipation as the IDO President taunted, “Canada or Croatia?” I couldn’t believe after four gruelling elimination rounds, and the announcement of the bronze medalist, they still hadn’t yet called my name. One of the two of us girls was going to win that coveted Gold Medal! Tears streamed down my face as my quivering body stood draped with a Canadian flag. The cheering of the spectators from the 5.500 seat SACHSENarena erupted louder and louder as the German MC presented the runner-up video dance clip.......there were my gold Ruben Sanchez tap shoes up on the Jumbotron. Although a millisecond of disappointment hit me, I became overcome with emotional pride with the announcement that I was called to the podium to receive my silver medal at the World Tap Championships! It was at that very moment last December 2018; I would receive the international ranking of the second-best Junior Female (tap dance) Soloist in the World! To think that 3.5 years prior to this event, I was confined to a wheelchair unable to walk, was simply surreal. Flashback to March Break 2015 At the age of twelve, while on a March Break vacation to Barbados with my dad, I felt something latch onto my ankle, leaving a red bullseye mark. A few days later, while inflight back home to Toronto, my one eye dimmed to darkness like a theatre curtain falling. Then oddly, moments later, I was able to see again. Two days upon my return home, I awoke to blindness in that same eye, so my mom rushed me to emergency concerned that I had suffered a detached retina. I ended up losing my vision and colour vision due to optic neuritis (virus attacking the optic nerve) and eventually losing the use of my legs over the course of the next few months. I was never officially diagnosed after being admitted to the Hospital for Sick Kids, but it is believed that a tick bite likely left me with either Lyme Disease or Chikungunya Virus, which at that time, the latter was widespread on the Barbadian island. I was treated with a round of antibiotics, yet I PHOTO / Tony Maher 82 | teenlook.ca | VIENNA MARYCE

had almost every symptom of the insect-borne Chikungunya Virus. Blood work proved inconclusive. It was crazy to think that a competitive dancer who typically doesn’t even get colds, would without warning, suddenly become debilitated by an insect bite. I missed an entire term at school as I couldn’t even use the washroom facilities for myself, let alone see. I also had to postpone my dance training. It was at that point that I vowed, if I am ever able to walk again, I will rise to the very top of the genre of dance I enjoy most, which was tap. To think that at one dark moment of my tween life, I thought about wanting to die rather than remain a functionless cripple confined to a wheelchair. What if I had succumbed to my desperation? I would have never been gifted this most incredible day of my entire life. Following countless weeks of rehabilitation and intense dance training, I was selected through Team Canada qualifiers PHOTO / Adam Faithful to compete my solo in Germany at Worlds, which is the “Olympics of Dance”, winning TWO silver medals (a second silver for Production). Fortunately, other than some mild colour blindness, I made a full recovery thanks to some hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In four weeks from the time you’re reading my story, I’m hoping to return to Germany and give it my all to bring home that Gold Medal for my country competing the solo which I self-choreographed. The one lesson that I can share from all this is, in the face of adversity - FIGHT because quitters never win, and winners never quit, and no one knows what joy tomorrow may bring. Follow this inspirational model/dancer/writer/musician on Instagram @ vienna.maryce teenlook.ca | 83

had almost every symptom<br />

of the insect-borne Chikungunya<br />

Virus. Blood work proved inconclusive.<br />

It was crazy to think that a competitive<br />

dancer who typically doesn’t even get<br />

colds, would without warning, suddenly become<br />

debilitated by an insect bite. I missed<br />

an entire term at school as I couldn’t even<br />

use the washroom facilities for myself, let<br />

alone see. I also had to postpone my dance<br />

training. It was at that point that I vowed,<br />

if I am ever able to walk again, I will rise to<br />

the very top of the genre of dance I enjoy<br />

most, which was tap.<br />

To think that at one dark moment of my<br />

tween life, I thought about wanting to die<br />

rather than remain a functionless cripple<br />

confined to a wheelchair. What if I had<br />

succumbed to my desperation? I would<br />

have never been gifted this most incredible<br />

day of my entire<br />

life. Following<br />

countless weeks<br />

of rehabilitation<br />

and intense<br />

dance training,<br />

I was selected<br />

through Team<br />

Canada qualifiers<br />

PHOTO / Adam Faithful<br />

to compete my solo in Germany at Worlds,<br />

which is the “Olympics of Dance”, winning<br />

TWO silver medals (a second silver for<br />

Production). Fortunately, other than some<br />

mild colour blindness, I made a full recovery<br />

thanks to some hyperbaric oxygen therapy.<br />

In four weeks from the time you’re reading<br />

my story, I’m hoping to return to Germany<br />

and give it my all to bring home that Gold<br />

Medal for my country competing the solo<br />

which I self-choreographed.<br />

The one lesson that I can share from all<br />

this is, in the face of adversity - FIGHT<br />

because quitters never win, and winners<br />

never quit, and no one knows what joy<br />

tomorrow may bring.<br />

Follow this inspirational<br />

model/dancer/writer/musician<br />

on Instagram @ vienna.maryce<br />

teenlook.ca | 83

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