Junior's Writing Earns NY Times Recognition

The Word I Didn’t Know

I was seven years old when I heard the doctor say “mutation." I pictured superheroes, not something hiding in my blood. My mother squeezed my hand as he explained that people in our family carried a mistake—one that could grow into cancer if it wanted to. I didn’t understand the words, but I understood the tears. At home, she told me it was called Lynch Syndrome. I repeated it like a spelling word, hoping saying it out loud would shrink it. I didn’t feel sick. It just felt different—like my future had a shadow nobody else could see.