Tyler Chapman
Tyler Chapman was born December 27, 1986. Six months after he was born he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis is a common disease that affects the entire body, causing an early death. Most people with CF die in their 20's or 30's due to lung failure. Tyler knew about his illness his entire life but it never slowed him down or stopped him from doing what he wanted. At a very young age Tyler had a lung removed, and he still never slowed down. He was always one of the happiest people at school. He played every sport you can think of, he rode four wheelers, he raced cars, etc. He did all of this knowing he was going to die at a very young age, and like I said he never let it slow him down. At 16 Tyler's lung collapsed twice. It was then that he realized how much his illness could affect his life.
I went to Tyler's memorial service on Saturday. After hearing about how Tyler lived his life, I was amazed. It amazed me how he could keep himself so happy knowing that his time was almost up. It made me look at life completely different. Here is someone with a chronic illness and he was happier than everyone around him. Happier than everyone else in school who was perfectly healthy and would live a full life. Everyone takes the small things in life for granted. Tyler never let his illness slow him down so why do so many people complain about how bad their life is? He decided to do as much as possible and live his 20 year life to the fullest. He lived to be 20, most of us will probably live to be 80, yet he was still happier than anyone else I know.
I had the honor of wrestling with Tyler for 3 years. He wasn't the best wrestler, in fact he flat out sucked, he stuck with it though. Since he had CF he was really small and didn't grow as fast as the average person. Freshman year he weighed less than 86 pounds and he wrestled at 103 pounds. In order to wrestle at a highschool level you need to weigh at least 86 pounds, so while we were all trying to sweat the water out of our system to lose weight he was drinking as much as possible to weigh enough to wrestle.
You will be missed Tyler. RIP.
I went to Tyler's memorial service on Saturday. After hearing about how Tyler lived his life, I was amazed. It amazed me how he could keep himself so happy knowing that his time was almost up. It made me look at life completely different. Here is someone with a chronic illness and he was happier than everyone around him. Happier than everyone else in school who was perfectly healthy and would live a full life. Everyone takes the small things in life for granted. Tyler never let his illness slow him down so why do so many people complain about how bad their life is? He decided to do as much as possible and live his 20 year life to the fullest. He lived to be 20, most of us will probably live to be 80, yet he was still happier than anyone else I know.
I had the honor of wrestling with Tyler for 3 years. He wasn't the best wrestler, in fact he flat out sucked, he stuck with it though. Since he had CF he was really small and didn't grow as fast as the average person. Freshman year he weighed less than 86 pounds and he wrestled at 103 pounds. In order to wrestle at a highschool level you need to weigh at least 86 pounds, so while we were all trying to sweat the water out of our system to lose weight he was drinking as much as possible to weigh enough to wrestle.
You will be missed Tyler. RIP.