My time with Jessica & what our friendship means to me

By: Samantha Wilczynski

Jessica was the first little friend I made when I started at CCChampions. Little friend in size, but big friend in my heart. Every time I get a chance to see her, no matter what is going on in my life, it all goes away when I spend time with Jessica. She makes me smile like no other little girl can! When she smiles, I cannot help but smile and when she laughs, I cannot help but laugh with her. 

Throughout my time knowing Jessica we have had so many great experiences together! A lot of the time we spend together involves doing crafts and playing games in the hospital, but we were still able to go out and have lots of fun exploring the different places in the city as well! We’ve had the chance to go to the National Aviary to paint with the penguins and the Children’s Museum to play with the water display, explore music, and much much more!

One of my favorite memories with Jessica was the day we spent at the Children’s Museum. When we were there, there was so much to explore and it was great to see Jessica out of the hospital and having so much fun! She loved putting her arms up to catch different letters and reaching to the stars to make beautiful music. My favorite moment was when we worked together to make new sounds. We realized that if we held hands and worked together, we could reach even more stars and make more music!

We also had the amazing opportunity to paint with the penguins at the National Aviary! Who wouldn’t love to paint with penguins?! To make things even better, our penguin artist Happy was able to paint using Jessica’s favorite color, orange, in her paintings. Jessica was very excited to spend the day at the Aviary. She got to see many different types of birds and her very favorite- the flamingos!

Spending the time at the hospital with Jessica was a special experience for me. It was a unique experience to go back into the hospital where I had spent a lot of time as a teenager and see things from a different perspective.  My journey with cancer really gave me an insight into how much Jessica is going through. Though every diagnosis is different, there is something to be said about the experiences that you go through when the 9th floor of the hospital is your second home.

Jessica inspires me to keep going in life, even when you hit the bumps in the road- big and small. I hope that I can inspire her with my story and our time together just like she has inspired me. Don’t doubt her because of her size, this little girl is a fighter! ​​