GREELEY, Colo.—Last year, Jason Miller couldn’t help but focus on himself.
No one blamed him for that. He was a teenager, and that’s what many teenagers do. But it was more than that. Miller had the kind of health problems that no kid—he was only a sophomore at Greeley West—should have to face.
He’d already nearly died from a bee sting in 2006. In April 2007, he was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, and last year, he got two concussions in August while playing football. The injuries prevented him from playing a down during West’s special, title-game season, and he developed migraines.
“It was just one thing after another,” said his father, Craig, who lives in La Salle with Miller’s mother, Vicki. “You just felt so bad for him.”
Miller felt sorry for himself, too, because he was seeing his high school years swallowed by all the health ailments. He loved to play football and march in the band—he’s the only one to do both—and was close to becoming an Eagle Scout. He just wanted to be “normal.”
That’s when Miller turned to Tonga.
This summer, he traveled to Tonga in the South Pacific islands. Miller wanted a project to help him complete his Eagle Scout requirements. He also wanted to do something he would be proud of 10 years from now.
Tonga fit the bill. The area was amazingly beautiful, with beaches and oceans surrounded by much more green than he sees here. But it’s also a poor region, and the kids there didn’t have the daily pleasures or opportunities Miller took as givens, such as a shower, carpeted floors, McDonald’s, an education, even a car.
For two weeks, Miller and a host of other Scouts helped make those kids’ lives a little better. He built an organic market and helped fix up a health clinic. It was hard work. But it felt good.
Miller had to raise most of the money himself for the trip, and his parents, with four other kids, weren’t able to help much.
It was a tough trip.
“I took a long, hot shower when I got home,” Miller said. “That was nice.”
But it helped him see beyond his own problems. Miller needed a reminder that, while his life was more difficult these past few years than most teenagers, he still had plenty.
“It really stopped me from feeling sorry for myself,” Miller said.
Miller is playing on West’s junior varsity football team and suits up for the varsity. At halftime, he marches with the band. He’s feeling normal again, or as normal as a 16-year-old can feel.
He’s learned how to not only live life, but enjoy it, after spending time with those who made him realize what he had, not what he’d already lost.
