For two years, Coral Gables High senior Katherine Rey volunteered with the track team at Shenandoah Middle School. Rey was the track team manager when she attended Shenandoah and was happy to go back and help while in high school.
“I mainly help them stretch and would go to meets with them,” she said.
She is proud that she helped them develop respect for others and for themselves.
“Basically, by boosting their confidence, telling them if they tried, they would succeed,” Rey said. “That practice doesn’t make perfect, but it gets you there.”
When she was in eighth grade, she wanted to be on the track team but couldn’t because of severe migraines. So she became manager and did paperwork for the coach.
She still suffers from migraines but now she takes medication to deal with them.
“I get through it, with the help of my parents and the encouragement of my teachers,” she said. “I have to take medication in the morning and at night. They can sometimes get that bad, the longer I’ve been on the medication the better they get.”
For two years she went from doctor to doctor before she found one that could help. Through keeping a food log, she learned which foods trigger the migraines. For her it is chocolate, cheese and onions. Another trigger is too much sun.
“It affects everything in my life,” Rey said.
However, she won’t let her migraines stop her life. She is president of the Future Educators Association (FEA) so she spends much of her free time at the school’s daycare center with the children.
“I read books to them; I lunch with them; I put them to sleep,” she said.“I go to the playground with them. Basically everything the teacher does except talking to the parents.”
She believes that teaching is an option for her. The other option would be physical therapy. She has applied to FIU and Miami-Dade Honors and Nova Southeastern.
— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
