Beating Leukemia and Managing Gopher Men's Basketball | Drew Evenson #019

Hey everyone, it's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. We have a extra special guest here today, Drew Evenson. Welcome, Drew. Thanks for having me. Excited for this. Yes, you bet. So, Drew is a student at the University of Minnesota studying in sports management, I believe. Correct. And he's also the men's student manager for the basketball team. So, let's get started. Drew, let's go way back. Where are you from? I'm from Homeman, Wisconsin. born and raised there up until college here. So, I spent my whole life um in the Lacrosse County and grew up there where my parents or where my parents are from. Yep. So, you have a couple siblings. You have a twin brother. What's that been like growing up? Having a twin brother is very interesting. Um uh one one of the best things that could happen to me, you always got a competitive edge shoot with a twin brother. Yeah. You never have to as a kid, you never have to go look for someone to play with or hang out with. Just right there. And so our how competitive we were as kids has continued on and is now we're not in sports as much as we used to be against each other. Um we still we still talk about sports all the time. Absolutely. You used to play hockey. Tell everybody a little bit about your hockey journey growing up. So me and my brother both played hockey and so I was a goalie. So we had always had someone to shoot on and I always had someone to get some practice in. And uh I was a goalie from I think the second year I started and that was in like third or fourth grade. And I was goalie all up until high school. Awesome. So you played hockey for the Avalanche when you were in high school. Yes. Mhm. Were you still goalie back then? I was a goalie in high school. Yeah. That was those were the fun years, I'd say. Cuz my brother um was on the same team as my myself, of course. And as a goalie and he was a defenseman then. So even if he was on my team, I'd always like messing with him just when he's standing for the net, little pokes at the back. Absolutely. Quick stick. I'm going to hook you do a little slashing too. when he wasn't on my team and he was in front of the net, I'd give him a waffle to back. Absolutely. So, your home and community has been pretty awesome. They still are. You still talk to a lot of people. It seems like the community in itself, just like lacrosse, even when you go away, everybody still is there for support. Tell us a little bit about like the history and how they all support around everybody in the community. And yeah, it's a very close-knit community. Everyone who's grown up there, all their parents are from the surrounding area. So they all are connected, which is really cool. All my friends parents, they're all friends with each other. Y and so it's all like familiar faces. So my mom knows their mom and all that stuff. And then to see that kind of go into the next generation, I think, is really cool because it doesn't seem like we had to form a friendship. It seems like we've just had that friendship kind of like a born in family almost. I have a lot of friends that are like second brothers to me. So, for sure, it's great having that in the community. Well, and it's fun from seeing I mean, I know obviously we're related, but knowing like having your mom grow up next to Missy and Heather and seeing their kids grow up with you guys and just kind of being like a second family, always there for support, too. Yeah. And it's awesome. And the best thing about that, as you bring up Missy, is that she lives in Woodbury here. So, when I my first summers being a student manager, I didn't have a place to stay. And so, she just let me crash on their in their extra spare bedroom there. And so that was uh really I'm really grateful for that summer too. Yes. For some of you that don't know, Missy um has been a good friend of mine, too. She does a lot for the troops. She also does a lot for um USA Cares, which is an organization that helps raise money for veterans, helps place them in jobs, things like that as well. Um she's a veteran herself. She is an amazing person. But let's roll back a little bit. Let's talk a little bit about like high school years. you had gone through co Tell people who are listening that didn't and weren't in school what that was like distance learning and everything like that. I remember the day it happened. The day it happened was almost like it's it's got to be up there in one of the most fun high school days because all your friends are just hearing the rumors like I heard they might shut down schools. It's like we might get a week or two off. And so when it happened, it happened at the end of the day. They released that they're shutting schools down and all my friends got together and we just hung out. We're like, "This is a two week break. This is awesome." And so then turns out it kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed and we're like, "So I guess we're just not going back this year." And that was my junior year. Yep. And so all my all my buddies, not many of them had summer jobs going super strong or like busy because of COVID. Yep. And so we'd go out on the river all the time and I talk with my grandparents. My grandparents live on the river and I put more money into their jet ski than my own gas. Oh, I'm sure that that summer and so I was out there like three times a week and it it was the best. It was honestly my favorite summer I've been alive for. For sure. It's a lot of memories and I mean I'm sure with your grandparents having you guys just out there and being able to be outside kind of like they did when they grew up. they having the house boat and living on the Mississippi and just seeing those memories bonding on the river in and around outside which people don't think like hey yes you're in Wisconsin but the world doesn't have to end because we're locked inside you can go outside and do what you want to do the golf world was huge uh speaking of golf your brother's an amazing golfer he golfs for Augustana University in South Dakota super proud of him as well but with the co times how was the distance learning did you guys have to log lo in and tell people a little bit about the struggles that you had there. Yeah. So, it was just logging in to a Zoom call for each class. It was odd because they had like um hall periods where it's like in between the classes you had a little buffer window to from class to class, but that was probably um it took the most um learning curves to adjust to it because you were still doing all the work. used to hand in a lot of stuff in person. Now it was all on on paper, especially classes um that required more handwriting. Yeah. Such as um I mean English you could write it and type it up, but then like math and science where you have to type out equations and all that stuff that became more challenging. And I guess the overall focus is because I'm a teenage boy at home and I got my Xbox on in the background while got my headphones on for class. Well, I think people teachers and mine too, it's hard to understand. Like we for instance had five kids that were all trying to get online at once trying to do Zoom call after Zoom call while we're both at work. It's like okay, internet's going to be slow. They're going to be distracted. They're in the same room together. Teachers are asking, "Who are you talking to?" And they're sitting in the same room trying to Zoom. It's like there's only so many options that families have, kids have, and you do the best you can do. It's It was a crazy time. So, what made you think about getting into basketball management, sports management? I know you were really high on the basketball, the sports level, hockey, everything like that. What was that always your passion? So, I was a big hockey guy growing up. I didn't really start I played basketball before I started playing hockey and I started in like second grade. So, I didn't play basketball competitively at all in my lifetime and um we'll get into it with some later topics, but I kind of just had a switch and I followed basketball late in high school and um it just drew interest to me and I thought that that's like a cool sport. Get involved. There's some cool opportunities out there to get involved besides playing it. Yeah. And so I just found out there's an opportunity with the men's team at the university to be a manager. I'm like, well, if I have some interest, might as college is the time to try it out. So, I was fortunate to get a position there. Nice. Let's take a little bit of a moment. Let's go back to end of junior year, start of senior year. You guys had co and so you were missing out on some of the major things. I mean, everybody looks forward to like prom, graduation. You guys are locked inside. Not really locked inside, but school is a lot different. How how would that change your senior year for you prior to everything else? I think the biggest thing is that growing up you always imagine your senior year of high school being the most fun of your life. And so I think a lot of people are consumed by what they missed out on. But how I look at it, especially that summer in between and then yeah, still online is I looked at what we gained and that summer I think my friendships grew tfold, right? And when I talked about going on the river or less people were working and more people were like enjoying themselves, hanging out. It was co and there was restrictions, but I think my friend group especially, we developed a sense of more even more closenit than we were before. And so I think the negatives are outweighed by the positives and that is so you learn to adjust and we're already a very tech friendly generation where we grew up with it so we never had to get used to it. It was easy to get a hold of it and so we just kind of adjusted to it. We have social media, we have phones, we have texting. So, it was easy to stay in contact with people. Do you feel that as a younger generation for the older generation to try to finagle and figure out their ways through all that has helped get them to where they are today? Do you feel that like your mom, your grandparents, getting them, forcing them to be online because that's the only option that they had kind of helps them in the future? Yes. And early on, especially with the grandparents, it's fun to see them try to develop technology skills, especially pop he um he he has had the same ringtone for multiple years and he doesn't know how to change it and but he knows how to post pictures of good fish that catches. He does. He does. You I'll open up my phone and I'll get a random notification. I I'm not on Facebook. I have an account, but he's the only one who sends me Facebook messengers still to this day and I told him I'm not on there really and I check it like once a month. Y but then it's just a bunch of photos of fishes. Every day I'll open up my phone cuz um for those of you that don't know, Paul is my uncle is my dad's brother. Um they were best friends. They were the closest of any of them it felt like. But every day I'll pull up my feed and I'm like, "Oh, Paul caught another big bass. Here we go." So much fun. But it's fun to see his support, his love for his family, too. Uh Linda as well. So now we're going to do a little bit of a plot change. We are going to roll into what a lot of you don't know about. And I'm going to actually take off my jacket, too, because we're going to roll back to October of 2020. Now that it's cooler in here, um the ones that don't aren't online, I have a Drew's Crew T-shirt that says I fight with Drew. So, October 2020 amidst the co. Let's tell everybody listening a little bit about how your life changed and what happened. Yeah. So um October 13th um 2020 I was diagnosed with um AL and the T- cell which is leukemia and that's cancer of the blood. Yes. And so you talk about all the restrictions of COVID and I guess this kind of plays into some of the questions you asked earlier with like how was adjusting to school and so I didn't really face a lot of those adjustments cuz I was going through this. Correct. And so my senior year um is that's why I always like to focus on the things that I didn't miss out on, right? But the things like I gained and I talked about that summer beforehand so much, but as a as a senior, yeah, my life changed upside down and um it was a downward spiral of like a week, right? And um that week had a lot of ups and downs in it. um just leading up to the diagnosis is it was a five day fiveday stint where it just a rapid decline but there were some cool events. Did you feel that when you were first diagnosed or before you were diagnosed? How were you feeling? How what made you go in? Was it more of like flu or tired or what was what was the decline like? It started with a rash that grew on my hips in my armpits and it was it just looked like a bunch of like red freckles popping up and I had no clue what it was and then it um rap I I lifted in um high school and I noticed that I went to do squats and I couldn't do half the weight I was used to doing and I thought a staff infection or some kind of mat infection. Yeah. And I didn't I didn't put them all together. And if it wasn't for the rash, I wouldn't have went in because the rash started on day one, it was only noticeable on the hips and armpits. And within 3 days, it covered my entire body. Yikes. And so I didn't except my face. Um so no one could really tell what was going on in the background. And I brought it to my mom probably on day three like look at this. This is a little odd. And she's like we'll monitor it. And then at like during that third day, I started sleeping probably close to 16 hours a day. I was really only up in um just like night sweats, like a cold or the flu kind of there. And it was just a downward spiral there. And me and my friends, we all got together. We had um since the school didn't have a homecoming, we had a homecoming. And so we were all sitting by the fire and then some guys got up to go play catch with the football. And I go up and I try to start running. And I couldn't I couldn't run. I I had no clue what was going on. My feet were just super like heavy. It felt like and um looking back it was like the blood was just like it felt like it was weighing me down. Yeah. And weird that time too people probably thought oh he's got CO because a lot of the symptoms with CO too were being tired and just the long CO you're exhausted you can't stand up like what all is going on? So when you say that I I went in to the day I got diagnosed um I almost did not get diagnosed that day due to my own self-doing and I I credit to my mom for legitimately saving my life because I was in a downward spiral um um medically right and I hated needles y I didn't want to get poked and I went in there and they said I have CO y um I had to get CO tested and I already hated that cuz that was no fun And then their systems were down that day and they wanted me to get blood labs done but they couldn't send the order to the labs. And so as someone who hated needles, I was like I'll come back in two weeks after my good after they said my period was done cuz they said I had COVID and I didn't and so they said two weeks and she went up and down three flights of stairs three separate times and said no, he's getting his blood drawn today. I'm going to do it today. Y and I was like mom I'm totally fine with just going home. like I feel like I feel like awful, but like I'm totally fine with going home. And so I got my blood drawn. I go home. I remember I was watching a TV show on my phone in bed cuz I was like too tired to do anything. And then she comes downstairs with like a few tears in her eyes and she says, "We got to pack a bag. We're going to be at the hospital for a bit." And so we're on our way there and I have I've kept my cool. I packed uh some stuff up and um I thought like infection going to be gone in a few days and then we get up to the room cuz normally when you're hospitalized you get brought up from the emergency room but I was I walked myself up um up there sat in the room and I knew it was bad when um I was sitting in the recliner in the room my mom was on the couch and then the doctor pulled in the chair from outside to sit on in front of me like that's not good. I was like, "Oh boy, here we go." Like, "What what is going on here?" And then, um, the rest of it was kind of just a blur. It's like I I thought I remembered it pretty good, but every time I go back to it, I don't really remember that moment all too much. Probably numbing. It probably just was stress and it's one of those things you just wanted to black out. It It was It was very um My mom was I don't remember her crying a lot. I was just in complete utter shock. I like no one ever thinks they're going to get diagnosed with cancer, let alone at 17. And for the cancer I was diagnosed with, most people are diagnosed um before the age of like six, seven, before 15 or usually later on in life, too. Yeah. So, it's it's really early is they said like the average age is like five. And so, at 17 years old, I'm like, how is this happening? And so um I mean I was planning to go to college right in school had friends I had plans for later that night to go do and that's just all like you wanted to play hockey you wanted to just live your normal life. They told me I couldn't play hockey. That was one of the first questions I asked. Yikes. But I remember the first question I asked and um I asked if if I had to get one is this the one I wanted to get because um the survival rate is so much higher. And I'm so much fortunate for the the history of medical research because 50 years um earlier and it was basically a death sentence to get the one I got. So I'm very grateful for all the research that was done for that. Yep. So your alll for those listening who don't know, it's acute lymphastic leukemia. It's a type of bone marrow that produces lymphocytes which are basically regaining and making your white blood cells expand. So they're off the charts. So, when you found out that you had it, who was the next person did you tell? Did you talk to Sam, your twin brother? Did you talk to some of your buddies? Or were we just kind of numb to everything? I texted my dad cuz he wasn't there. I said, "You need to get down to the hospital as soon as possible." Yeah. Um I texted my my mom texted my siblings. Yep. There was a friend group I texted where um they were all doing their own thing. and they're all working and I texted them and they said that's very funny like you're you're like they didn't think they didn't think I was serious and then um they they were like that's I sent off they was just like I sent a selfie in the hospital bed like this is this is legit guys. Uhhuh. Like that that's the only way I knew how to cope with it at the time right was um just kind of playing it. But it was just um a lot of people didn't like I a lot of people found out very quickly cuz word word travels fast and absolutely especially with all my friends and um there's just a lot of people that like kind of were going to figure out fast if I wasn't there. So I figured I might as well let them know what's going on. Let's let everybody know and just blast it out there and be done with it. And and so going back to hating needles that first day I got poked. If you count the first the one for the labs, I got poked I think five times that day. Yikes. And then I went into surgery the next day to get a port um implanted. So they they messed up with the IV a lot and I was So just already a kid who's going through some stuff just um hates needles, hates all that stuff. You have to get over that pretty fast. You do. Yeah. Then it's like, okay, game on. Like we're going to fight or flight. Let's let's fight this. Let's go. Yeah. That that was what I want. I wanted to get going. It's like what? Like I told him, "Let's get started. Let's get going this right away." And uh I think the biggest, not I think I know the biggest pickme up I got that week was um I found out all my friends got together at um my from growing up, my best friend. Um you brought up um Heather and Missy at um Heather's house, my godmother's house, and my um best friend Coupe. Yep. Coup. Um he got them all together and my brother and my sister were all there and they all came up with a plan to support me. And then that night, amazing. Um, I get told to look out my hospital window and there was 100, 200 people out there waving. I saw the pictures waving through the hospital windows, just the the seeing and that's what I was trying to kind of get to or lead to, the community support, your friend support, everybody being there for you, letting you know that they're behind you, they're with you, they stand with you, they're ready to fight with you. How did that make you feel when you saw everybody out there? It it made me feel confident in what like the journey ahead was long as I was told it was going to be 40 months um of treatment and so I didn't know what to expect but then also in that crowd I saw multiple people who battled similar illnesses right um whether it was my grandma my grandfather with um all all their medical issues I saw them and it's like I I can do that too y and so just getting started going through treatment Um, the first chemo was the next day I believe is the first day was all pumping me up of all the nutrients and blood cells I was lacking is I was like a paper cut away from bleeding out, right? Um, and so just all the medical stuff thrown at me the first day was very surreal and like still like that week I didn't know anything about what was going on. I was just showing up and saying let's let's do this. let's do this. And um having the community support really gave me the confidence to just go fight each day and knowing that the days I couldn't fight, I had people there to lift me up. They can fight for you, too. Yep. So, one thing I want the listeners to know, which a lot of you don't know, is which makes me super proud, is the positivity, the atmosphere, the fun humor that you brought to the table every single time that you were going through everything is amazing. It's so inspiring to just see somebody that has gone through everything that you've gone through, to be happy golucky, to be making jokes, to be having fun with the staff, the nurses, the doctors. Um, which hospital you were at? Fairview? I'm up here in the cities. I'm at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's. And um, I transferred up here when I when I started college. And so going through treatment, I was like, am I going to college or not? And so I applied to one college, University of Minnesota. When I was in the hospital that first week, I got my acceptance letter and my mom's like, "What do you want to do?" And I'm like, "Let's do it. I'm I'm not do I'm not going anywhere else. You told me to go there. I'm going to go there." And um I also want to take a step back and you um saying all my traits during treatment. I can't take all the credit for that because the people around me gave me the strength and confidence to do that. And there's a speech I referenced a lot throughout my treatment by Stuart Scott where he says just you don't beat cancer by getting rid of it. You beat it by living with it and enjoying it. And so it's like the I had what in my mind the day that I thought was going to be the best day of my life, which was the bell ringing ceremony. Yep. And uh honestly, like looking back, it sounds very cliche cliche, but the best day is always like the next one you get to wake up to because there's so much more to do, right? And so much more to just enjoy with life. And so when you were diagnosed, you started the chemo, you had to shave your hair, all your buddies and parents and grandparents decided to do that right along with you. Tell tell everybody a little bit about that and how that all got started. And that it was all pretty fast. like that. That's everything was super fast. And that just keeps going back to the sport of community. All my friends, they they all shaved their heads with me. They they were all baldled with me. And so just seeing and then snap Snapchatting them each day after that and just seeing it was like a was a daily reminder that they're here with me. And then one of my buddies ran a race and he wrote Drew's crew on the on his shoes that that same um week that I started treatment. And so those are just like the little things that just really go a long ways that they show that it's not just me going through it, it's everyone going through it with me. If you don't have the strength to get through, everybody else will lift you up and get you through it, too. Yep. And I know that you have a lot of support far and in between everybody, even people that didn't know you were supporting you, following in your journey, listening and hearing all the stories. So, let's chat a little bit about how was it when you had to then you decided to go to the U of M and start that process and talk get into the basketball management for the men's basketball team, the student management and how all that played in. So, my first year I wasn't with the team. I was um just trying to figure out how college was going to work, right? Um is there's I was still hospitalized in college, still going through um multiple days of treatments in a week occasionally. And so balancing that life is moving away. Um I only know two people from my school that went up to university here and fortunately I was close by them so I was able to hang out with them. But figuring out how to make new friends with the thought of like are they going to like not judge me but like if they find out I'm on treatment, how does that treat me different? Are they going to treat me different? Um cuz realistically like you like I never knew if I was going to be um able to hang out that day, able to be even on campuses. I had to go home sometimes. Um could have been in the hospital any given night knowing all that stuff or if my immune system was not high enough where I had like could go out and see people, right? And so finding that balance the first year was tough, but I was able to find some great friends that I still talk to this day. Nice. That it's that's just been great for me. And then transitioning, meeting a new doctor up here, like I I love my doctors so much. They they are not like just my doctors. They're like family. They're friends. Um I every month now I see them, it's not, oh, I have a doctor's appointment. It's um it's like I got to gossip, go talk, let's go catch up. Uhhuh. So my my doctors are amazing here. Nice. Um back home, Dr. Jen. Yep. um, nurse Angie and then up here, Kelsey and Tara, they're they're amazing. It's It's amazing when you can have that bond with them, too. And they know what they do isn't easy. They know what they have to deal with. Then themselves having to carry the stresses throughout their day of going home and like, "Okay, how's this going to work? Is it going to work? Let's let's keep it positive and keep it rolling." Bringing that to the table. But just like everybody from the outside, seeing your strength, which you're getting from everybody else, pushes everybody through and gets them through it. I'm sure when you had your journey to seeing other children that were sick and going through things like that too, it's like how can we make it fun? What else can we do and keep rolling into the community? Exactly. And so, um, there's this girl I met when I was on treatment early on. Her name was Cara. This was back in lacrosse, um, at Gunderson. And I kind of formed a friendship with her. Um, she was three years old, battling, um, a cancer of her own. And so seeing her go through that and I never saw her upset. I mean, as a three-year-old, you can't really fully comprehend what's going on. But to see her with a smile on her face all the time, it's like I'm old enough. I mean, this can't it can't be that hard. If she's if she's having fun, I should be able to have fun. So, I'd play Uno with her all the time. So, fun. And one of the funniest stories was so she had the the child um specialist play with her and so she would be on her team and it be vers me and we were playing Uno one day and I was about to lay down a card that let her win. Yep. And I'm I saw that. I'm like I I want like I'm competitive. Okay. And so the exact line I got from the child specialist was, "You really going to cheat on a three-year-old with cancer?" And I'm like, "We both have cancer. Just a three-year-old." And so she ended up winning because you know that's what karma gets you. But absolutely but we played many many games. I haven't seen her a while but I heard um she's doing good. So I'm glad to hear that. Nice. So talking about sports management, the men's basketball team. Tell everybody about what the day what a day in the life of doing what you're doing there at the U is like. Every day is different there. Uh it could um as a manager you start out doing laundry, rebounding, and then the more you're around there, the more responsibility you get. And I'm grateful for the staff um at the university here as they've given me so many opportunities to grow as a person and um skills professionally. Y that um I I enjoy it because there's like I said, there's no day that's the same. So I I don't know what's going to happen the next day I go in there. I have an idea. But um it's just I love seeing the preparation behind the scenes and seeing what they do for just not just the season, but each game at a time. Let's put into it, too. Yep. So, they were really behind you. So, let's roll back or no, we're going to go forward. Let's go to February 2nd, 2024, final spinal day. Tell everybody a little bit about the bell ringing process and what happened on that day. So, um, that day I told people the day it was going to be. I was like, "If you guys want to come, feel free." Um, I didn't know who all was going to show up or any of that or if anyone was going to show up. And so, um, I knew I mean, I knew my family was there, but I remember it was my mom, my dad, and myself. We were up in the room, and they wanted to capture everything. And I'm like, "This just I'm like this just another just another appointment." Yep. just last one. Um, and it was just like I was holding in my excitement. I remember the night before um or even going back. So, every once I found out that February 2nd was going to be my last treatment, it's kind of like every year prior to that, I'm like, just one more year. I can get through this. One more month. One more year. One more year. One more month. And it felt so un like unreal when I they like you got six months left, five months left, four months left. The countdown. Yeah. The countdown. It's like that's not real cuz it's been 40 months straight of this. Did those final few months kind of drag on just because you're so anticipated and waiting for that day to come on or was it just like let's go? They they did. They did cuz it was like um I just wanted to do so much past I wanted to get my port out cuz my port held me back from a few things, right? And so, um, that last day I was like, my my parents were all excited, cheering, um, when my when they deac me for my port after my last treatment. And I was like holding it together like I still got to get my port out. Like then it's done. And I just remember um going down to the room. They're getting me ready for surgery. I'm sitting there. My sister's there now too in the room with us. And I'm getting carted out down to the operation room and my mom and dad are with me and I'm like, "Stop. We got to take a photo right now." Like, "This is the last chance you're going to see. Last chance you're going to be I'm going to be in this chair ever. Last time you're going to see this um this port in me." And so then um I I was cracking jokes after I got past the operation. I was cracking jokes the whole time. Absolutely. Like this is easy now. This is the the downhill. I was I was so excited. Um they I told them, "Watch out for the chest hairs. Don't don't take too many out." Even though don't shave those off. It's like it's like and then they're all like looking at me like this guy's crazy. He has no chest. And I'm like it's like just come on. Whatever is there there just leave it. I'm like you guys got to have as much fun as I am. It's a great day. So um then waking up from it, waiting in the room. When I woke up both my mom and dad were there and I'm like that's that's it. Like it's over. We're done. Uh and so I had to wait like 30 minutes and just anticipating the bell ringing. Yeah. And so that 30 minutes was like it was forever. It was just I was high on life basically. And if I could relive that any 30 minutes of my life, it'd be that 30 minutes because it was just pure joy, excitement. I felt so loved by like my family and my parents especially because they were they were there and they came to almost every appointment. Y driving 2 and 1 half hours is not easy and that's just one way and then they went back and so really um like I said I credit my mom to save my life that day and then my dad showing up for all those appointments they are like I am very fortunate to have that is because those appointments especially early on are not easy. No. And for being a young student child, anybody's child, like I know I have children that have some medical things going on, not half as much as what you have, but talking to your mom with your mom through the process, her staying strong. I mean, that gives everybody else strength, but she's like, "You know what? This is all about Drew. Drew's so positive and he's optimistic. He's cracking jokes. He's getting all his pricks and stuff from all the needles. And then he's heading out to the gym and he's doing all his basketball management stuff. He's just ready to rock through the day no matter what life gives him and no matter how crappy he feels. And all my strength like that comes from my parents showing me how to do is um I've told them multiple times like if you want to be at the appointments you got to have you got to have the thought that this is for a finish line, not just for a what if. This is this is what's going to happen. And so I think having that mental edge that I knew it was going to be done one day and that it was going to be over. There will be an end to it. That that is what kind of is like that that's the end goal and like the journey was just along the way and my parents were there every step of the way. Awesome. I think what people don't realize too, even in this day and age, everybody always says, you know, you yolo, you only live once. But truth is is you only die once, so live every day. Make the best of it. Find a reason to get through it. A lot of times people are struggling and think, hey, life's not so good. But there's always somebody else fighting a different battle. and seeing their optimistic, your positivity, everything that you know exudes from you through the whole process and from everybody else that's going through the journey is it's astonishing. It's that that's one thing like I was with all things going on. I was fort I'm fortunate to be where I am today and not as not everyone's as lucky as I am today and to come out um being cancer free with the friendships I have the new opportunities I gained throughout the whole process and there was like the first month I was bedritten like and then after that I'm like I can't do this like this just this just sucks like and so instead of saying it sucks because of what I'm going through I said it sucks because what I'm doing with it and so I want to do more with it and I wanted to keep living. Yep. Absolutely. And those doctors along the way, the nurses, the staff, everybody made that process so much easier for you. And the fact that you still talk to them and you want to catch up and like gossip about everybody and the people that used to see things like that, that holds a candle in itself because not everybody's that lucky. A lot of times people get monotonous in their jobs and they're just like, "It's another day, it's another person. They slip between the cracks, things like But there are some really amazing people out there and for you to encounter a lot of them is pretty amazing. How did your coach and team take it when you rung the bell and you they knew you were going through all of that? So every game we win they present a warrior belt y and so they present that to me for it and I was not ready for that at all. I mean first of all they're walking out and they were all wearing that same shirt and every time I see that shirt brings a smile to my face cuz it shows the community I have. Absolutely. And I didn't even know we had anymore because I haven't I hadn't seen that anyone wear those in like over a year at that point except my parents. Yep. And so um just seeing that we had I don't know if they printed more if they had to print more and just get all that I thought that was so cool. Y and um I have that photo saved um and it's up on my wall in my apartment. I have multiple photos of it actually of that day. And so that just the support the team gave me is so much. And just giving me an opportunity knowing what I was going through is they could have said like this job we need someone here who's going to be like they don't have to worry about what's going on outside. Like you could easily say that and say like this might not be the right time for you but um afterwards. But they did not say that. They they gave me an opportunity and that's where I went running with it. I'm like if they gave me an opportunity at the state I am now. Yeah. Um, I got to give them my all. Let me let me show you where we're going. I got I got to give it my all. Yep. So, they also have a stand up for cancer night and I've been a part of that. So has my family. Tell everybody a little bit about that night and what all happens there and what the players do for all the different types of cancers out there and people they know. They um they all have a shirt on the back and it says who they kind of are playing for that day. And two people put me on the jersey and I I had no clue about it before the game so that was cool to see. But they just kind of like honor like doc especially doctors too is because right without the doc like the doctors deserve so much credit is they make miracles work every day right and so um my doctor actually played at halftime during that game nice and so I gave her a ton of crap because she did not play well apparently it's like all right come on we got to have some practice and let's do a little one-on-one. Yeah, but just raising awareness for it and um Masonic gets they they donate to Masonic every game for the Boston Scientific player of the game. So every every game I see that and I hear where I'm getting care from and I just feel proud to be part of the team. Absolutely. What advice do you have to the younger generation or anybody that's out there that is or has or will be diagnosed with cancer in the future? I think you just got to like you got to take it in and you gota you got to reflect on it because you can't just ignore it. You got to go through you got to go through the grief all the stages and you got to understand what you're going through and what you're about to take on. And then you got to realize that you're never alone. You got people supporting you and that physically you're going to go through challenges but the me mentally it's going to be tougher. And so just like Steuart Scott said, you got to you got to figure out a way how to live with it. You got to fight. And just being persistent that do it for yourself, right? Uh you got to enjoy every day. Like I said, you can have a favorite um day of your life, but really the best one is the next one because you get another one. Yep. I mean, I remember I know my father passed away January 3rd of 2024 and being with him as last moments. I mean, every day we knew he was struggling. every day he was going through a lot of different stuff, but we'd always ask him, "Hey, Dad, how you doing today?" He'd say, "I'm doing good. Thumbs up, you know, I'm all right." And then on the days even when he wasn't, "Hey, Dad, how you doing?" Still big smile on his face. Oh, fair to Midland. And those were the days that we knew he was struggling, but he's still not going to admit it. He's still going to keep fighting through until you can't fight through anymore. But it's it's so empowering as a person, as anybody to see young people like you, but even anybody that's going through that process just fighting and pushing through because the things that seem so big to a lot of people, they're going to look back and it's nothing compared to what other people go through. So, I just wanted to have you on today to let everybody hear your story, kind of share a little bit, help get your name out there. You're going to school for sports management. What do you think is going to happen after school? It's your senior year. We're we're trying to decide that still. I have a lot of options. Um I see that will fit into what I want to do, but I mean this is the time in my life. I get to figure it out and I'm fortunate to be here and not know what's going to happen tomorrow. Um and so that's just kind of the joy of figuring it out. There's so many ways you can go about it and just I want to find something where I feel like it's what it's what I want to do. Um because if if you want to do it, you enjoy doing it, it's not work then. But you're still young and a lot of times I mean even people my age, people older don't know what they're going to do, where they're going to end up, what they're going to do. So it's just taking life one day at a time and living the best life that you can, making the most of it. If people want to hear your story or see any more, is there anywhere that they can find you or go watch a U of M basketball game or what's coming up on their schedule? They they can go to a Gopher basketball game. I'll be behind the bench there. Um, there's another video on the Big 10 network journey. Y that kind of highlights my whole story and there is a United Airlines commercial out there that I'm in. Nice. And so those were all cool things that I was able to do. Perfect. Well, we are so proud of you. We loved hearing your story. We can't wait to share it with everybody else. I'm sure we'll get a lot of notes back and encouragement and hey, that really helped. But you are the epitome of positivity and I appreciate you and you give me strength every day. So I appreciate having you here today and can't wait to see where your future goes. Thank you for having me on today. You bet. Thank you.