When Senior Eva LaBeau was young, she spent many nights with her grandmother, bonding, playing, and watching TV shows, especially medical ones. Although she didn’t know it at the time, this fascination she and her grandmother shared over shows like “Untold Stories of the ER” would become more significant to her future than she could ever imagine.
“From early childhood, [my grandma] would watch “Untold Stories of the ER” and other shows like that with me,” Eva said. “So I was always watching medical shows with her, which I think was the catalyst for my interest in medicine. Basically, since then, I’ve known that I wanted to go into either pediatric medicine or education and special education.”
Next fall, Eva will be entering her freshman year of college at Central Michigan University. She will major in child development while considering pre-physician assistant and pre-med options, and she will minor in sign language.
Eva grew up idolizing the doctors and nurses she watched on her TV screen, but they aren’t the only reason she has decided to take this path for her future. Her main source of ambition that fuels her dedication to her future comes from much more personal, and negative, experiences.
“I’ve had enough of my own medical [issues] that I understand how hard that can be as a kid,” Eva said. “I don’t want other kids to have to go through the same thing. For years, no one could tell me what was wrong with me until finally, when I was 15, I got diagnosed with a connective tissue disease. It took me 15 years to find a doctor to validate my experiences and prove that I wasn’t crazy, and I realized then that in my life, I want to be someone who can give people, and especially children, that understanding much earlier than I got it.”
Eva has been passionate about her dreams and life goals since her years of watching TV on the couch with her grandmother; that love and excitement have only grown throughout the years. Through all of her medical struggles growing up, Eva has continuously fallen in love with the idea of helping and caring for all people who need it.
It took me 15 years to find a doctor to validate my experiences and prove that I wasn’t crazy, and I realized then that in my life, I want to be someone who can give people, and especially children, that understanding much earlier than I got it.
— Eva LaBeau
The medical aspect of her plans isn’t the only part of her future she is excited for. By minoring in American Sign Language, Eva is setting herself up to be able to provide care for a much wider demographic of children, something that she is passionate about. Much of this devotion comes from personal experience.
“When I was in elementary school, [my sister] started teaching me [ASL],” Eva said. “We have a cousin who has special needs, and a lot of the time, he’s not able to fully verbalize what he wants or needs. So he knew ‘baby sign’ growing up, and from there [my sister and I] both started learning it more so that we could communicate better with him and help him be able to express himself. I’ve realized how important that is for, especially children, to be able to do.”
However, excitement isn’t the only emotion that Eva is facing as her senior year, and entire school career as she has known it comes to a close. While she can’t wait to enter the next chapter of her life, the idea of leaving behind the school, city, and people she has spent so much of her life with is a terrifying concept.
In her last weeks as a high school student, Eva is grappling to balance the excitement of following her dreams, and the melancholy of leaving her high school years behind, especially after spending so many of them thinking about the future she is about to enter.
“It’s almost like a Fever Dream,” Eva said. “It doesn’t feel like I should be here already. I feel like it’s something that I’ve thought about so much and for so long, and now it’s just here. It’s very bittersweet, but having a set passion and knowing what I want do with my life definitely helps with all of the nervousness and negative emotions that I’m feeling.”
However, having a set plan to follow her dreams doesn’t eliminate all of the nervousness and fear for her future. Eva is struggling, as are most seniors, with envisioning her life outside of the comfort of her everyday life now.
There are things that help ease her anxiety, however. Including her CMU’s proximity to Grand Rapids, her ever-growing enthusiasm for her future, and, most importantly, her future roommate.
The application and acceptance process for CMU was relatively easy for Eva—she visited campus and instantly fell in love, submitted her essays and test scores, and was accepted into her dream college. After that, however, Eva had to work out her living situation. This was a daunting task, but one that ultimately led her to create one of the best friendships of her life.
“Honestly, I’ve been most afraid that people won’t like me,” Eva said, “especially my roommate. But I got over that a while ago. Some girl texted me and just said, ‘Hey, you seem really cool, I’d love to be friends.” And from there it was a never-ending conversation for a week straight. She asked me to be her roommate the day after we met, but we had to figure some stuff out with other people. I don’t even really know how it happened, but it’s just me and her now.”
Through all the tangled, contrary emotions born in her final year of high school, Eva is, above all, delighted to finally be at the point in her life where she can follow the dreams she has been chasing since the first time her grandmother turned on “Untold Stories of the ER.”
There is nothing Eva is more passionate about than using her knowledge, personal experience, and empathy to create spaces for others to grow and heal. She hopes that in the future, she will become someone who breaks down medical, communication, and educational barriers.
“I just love the idea of being able to help people, that’s really what it comes down to. Even being on TCT, people have told me that my stuff has helped them, and it’s so gratifying. I feel like just having an outlet for that is such an important thing. And finding that in a career path is like beautiful”
