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During a poignant and bittersweet graduation ceremony, cancer-stricken Karleen Zetina showed she’s not defined by her disease as much as by her achievements, and her dreams.
A shy and quiet 17-year-old senior at West Mesa High School, Zetina has been battling an aggressive inoperable brain tumor for two years. She has endured four surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment and is now in hospice care. Yet, while in treatment, she earned enough credits to graduate. Her hope is to one day become a Crime Scene Investigator psychologist, according to friends and teachers.
Last Friday evening at the West Mesa Performing Arts Center, in front of her proud and beaming family and to the boisterous support of more than 200 of her friends, teachers and classmates, Zetina walked with her escort across the stage to receive her high school diploma. The center erupted in tumultuous applause, whistles and cheers.
“You guys have been so great and I want you to know I’m so happy you have been brought into my life …,” Zetina said in her written graduation address, which was read at her request by Catherine Dobrusky, one of her former teachers.
“I am so grateful for my family. I can see strength in my family’s eyes,” the remarks continued. “I don’t feel sad when I’m with my family.”
Karleen Zetina cradles a Teacup Yorkshire terrier she received as a gift during her graduation ceremony at West Mesa High School last Friday. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)
The nearly two-hour ceremony for Zetina featured the West Mesa band playing music, including the graduation processional, “Pomp and Circumstance,” along with an honorary tribute from the JROTC. On a giant screen, a video played, showing the brown-eyed, bespectacled teen clowning for the camera, dancing or doing other typical wacky things high school girls do.
Sitting on stage with her friend and escort, Jerry Hernandez, Zetina listened to relatives, friends and educators describe how she touches their lives, bringing tears, smiles and laughter to many in the audience.
“The minute you meet her, you fall in love with her,” said cousin Josefina Torrez, at first unable to speak but recovering to intermittently laugh and cry as she spoke, reflecting both the heartwarming and heartbreaking tenor of the ceremony.
“Hope, faith and joy,” is how teacher Ann Blankenship described what Zetina has brought to the school.
The loudest applause came when Zetina described in her address how, despite the pain and trauma of her treatment, she persevered to acquire her diploma in the expectation that “I can help to change the world and make a difference.”
“I just want everyone to know how grateful I am and to tell everyone not to ever give up and to work as hard as you can for what you want,” Zetina said in her address.
“No one knows when their time (will come), and you need to live your life to the fullest and never give up,” she said.
Outside the center after the ceremony, as a white limousine waited to whisk Zetina and friends away on a graduation celebration, three of her schoolmates described the event as both emotional and inspiring.
“I’m so glad she did it. She did it!” exclaimed fellow senior Jasmine Woods of Zetina’s graduation. “We’re all so proud of her.”
All three said they believed Zetina will conquer the disease.
“She’s so strong, and she won’t give up,” fellow senior Sylvia Chavez said.
Sophomore Sydney Chavez, though she acknowledged not knowing Zetina personally, said “She’s my hero.”
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
-- Email the reporter at asanchez@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3960
