Universidad de Panamá

English Department
Workshop 2
Name: Roxana Garcia Fernandez
Date: 09/20/2021
Id: 8-972-1489

Friendship and Family by Catalina Ritzinger

in everyone's life there is a moment when you realize who your true friends are

Catalina has already gone through that stage in her life where she already needs to
depend on her family and her family is truly the only people that everyone can trust
because, as some of you know, friends come and go.

Surely it has happened to you that you go up to dinner quickly with your family and
return to your room and do not go out for a while because you do not want to have
anything to do with them.

Now that your friends are really important, it is normal at this age to disagree with your
parents. Our parents are from another time and being from another time could well be
from another planet ...

In high school, Catalina was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, which is bone cancer;
she had made a very special friend. They did everything together.

She was with Catalina for a short period of time before her second defining moment,
which is when she was diagnosed with leukemia, her friend promised her that no matter
what was happening and what was going to happen in the future, she would be by his
side .
She could go through surgeries, bone marrow transplants, all because I have this friend
by her side, unfortunately, about a week after diagnosis
that friend slowly began to disappear from her life. She observed the people who were
there for her the entire time. It was her family. Catherine was sitting with her family and
her younger sister turned to her and told her that she was so happy that she had been
through all this.
Catalina wanted nothing to do with her sisters or her parents or her grandparents, she
was in her little world all the time, the friends she has been looking for and other people
have been there, always have been in front. Catalina no longer has Ewing's sarcoma.
She no longer has leukemia and she may not have any more of those friends but family
is a constant in life, and it is important to remember it.

Personal opinion

As Catalina, I have gone through health problems during my adolescence, I suffered a

strong depression and a severe episode of psychosis, during those difficult times I had
to leave school to continue my studies at home, and I don’t remember feeling supported
by my friends from high school. During all that time I lost a school year.

I only felt supported and accompanied by my family, they were visiting me every day of
the 29 days that I was hospitalized in 2017.
my parents especially, although I feel they are quite controlling and overprotective, I
appreciate them a lot. This reflection has made me remember how important that they
are and during my adolescence I realized that they will always be before my friends.