Holding out his ring finger with the mechanical nonchalance of someone who gets pricked by a needle five times a day, Andrew Cabatingan's eyes widen at the momentary nip of pain.

It's 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, which means it's time for the diabetic Christopher High School senior to stop sifting through possible essay topics on carbon capture technologies or high volume water fracking. Andrews teaching aid, Ray Miranda, needs to check Andrews insulin levels.

I've been taking your blood so many times, you should consider me a vampire, man, jokes Miranda, leaning forward in his chair and fiddling with Andrews insulin pump.

The 44-year-old para-educator is Andrews constant companion during school hours, save for the daily half-hour breaks Miranda takes from 10:30 to 11 a.m., Mondays through Fridays.

Or, as Andrew puts it, he ditches.

After four years spent sitting through every class alongside Andrew at Gilroy High School and later CHS after it opened in 2009, I'm filing for divorce as soon as he graduates, Miranda retorts, sarcastically.

Todays commencement ceremony at CHS mark a milestone for the wheelchair-bound, legally blind 18-year-old whose severe neuromuscular disease which causes diabetes as a symptom hasnt stopped him from pursuing a higher education at UC Berkeley.

Recognized by his teachers as a brilliant pupil who rakes in straight As and always seems to be smiling (Andrews expression frequently relaxes into a big, pearly grin), the senior who loves the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon and molecular environmental biology with equal conviction, rocks the paradigm for what can be achieved when life hands you a bucket full of lemons.

Andrew was diagnosed at the age of 6 with a recessive hereditary, degenerative condition called Friedreich's ataxia, which causes muscular incoordination, loss of balance, scoliosis, progressive damage to the nervous system, speech problems, diabetes, vision/hearing impairment and cardiac problems. Most people with Friedreich's ataxia die in early adulthood if there is significant heart disease, while others with less-severe symptoms live much longer, according to the American Academy of Neurology.

But despite the gradual loss of mobility and the inability to read on his own, he just gets it, said CHS finite math teacher Bob Santos, remarking on Andrews acute ability to process complex equations.

Originally posted here:
Amazing Andrew: Graduation just another milestone