North Muskegon senior Greta Goszkowicz cherishes every opportunity she gets to compete, whether it is playing golf for the Norse or helping her highly ranked tennis team in doubles.
"I get excited that I get the opportunity to go out and play, even if I don't win," Goszkowicz said. "I just get to be there and meet new people and play a sport that I love and work with two coaches that have helped me tremendously over the years."
But Greta's path to graduating high school and participating in athletics has been much different than most.
"I was diagnosed with ALL, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, when I was five," Goszkowicz said. "I really did not have a very good chance of living. I had about a 30 percent chance so I am 30 percent chance here today."
Greta went through more than three years of chemotherapy.
"I remember spending birthdays in the hospital. I remember spending almost every single holiday in the hospital," Goszkowicz said. "I remember spending weeks without seeing my family, my friends, going to school. I begged to go to school even after radiation days."
Yet, there she was helping her tennis team win a division four regional championship on Thursday, almost ten years in remission.
"I remember that day that was my last day and I came home and I was so excited," Goszkowicz said. "I didn't want to take my admission bracelet off because I was so happy that my journey that I battled through was over."
Greta is headed to Western Michigan University in the fall, planning to go into the medical field.
"As a child that was really sick, those nurses and those connections, even though I was five, had an impact on me today," an emotional Goszkowicz said. "I really want to work with kids who are like me and change their life like my nurses have changed mine."
And she still has a chance to win a state championship on the tennis court in two weeks, but that outcome will be nothing more than a footnote in Greta's story.
"Every time I step on that golf course or that tennis court I think how I'm so lucky to be here."
