Every now and then, life throws you a pickle and you have the choice whether to give up or face the challenge. For three individuals, the latter was the only choice. Whether it’s something small or life changing, overcoming challenges to become a better, stronger person is part of what makes us human. If you ever come across a challenge and feel like giving up, hopefully these people will inspire you to continue the fight, even if it seems like an impossible task.

[Jason Lee Iglesias Cruz]

After graduating from high school, many people are busy preparing for college — buying textbooks, moving into dorms, making new friends. While many of Jason Lee Iglesias Cruz’s friends were doing just that, he was fighting for his life.

Up until he was 18, Cruz was just like any other teenage boy, with dreams of doing big things with his life. “I’ve been playing [football] since I was 8 years old,” he says. “I [wanted] to play for the Miami Dolphins.” Cruz played football all through high school, while attending Father Duenas Memorial School and was on his way to play for the University of California at Los Angeles. However, on Aug. 21, 1991, he became sick and fell into a coma. 

It wasn’t until nine days later that the doctors diagnosed his disease. Cruz suffers from the genetic disease systemic lupus erythematous — an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the body’s cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage.

During the nine days he was in the coma, doctors told Cruz’s family that if he did ever come out of the coma, he wouldn’t be the same, and would be a “vegetable,” he says. “But when I came out of the coma, I was talking. The doctors had no explanation for it.”

But coming out of the coma was only half the battle. The lupus left Cruz blind and paralyzed. Cruz says, “I was mumbling words because I was so weak. They had to brace me up with a strap, because I couldn’t even hold my own weight up. Basically, I had to learn life all over again.”

After a few months of rehabilitation, Cruz finally returned to Guam, but adjusting to being blind and having to walk with crutches was difficult for him. “It was hard because I was scared to cut myself. I was afraid I would fall and not be able to get up again.” Cruz spent the next two years of his life at home, depressed. “I didn’t want to live anymore,” he says.

“All I wanted to do at home was eat, eat, eat and isolate myself from everybody because I was so ashamed,” he says. Over those two years, Cruz ballooned to 300 pounds. It wasn’t until his doctor told him that he needed to do something about his weight or he could die that he stopped his downard spiral. “I really snapped out of it. Here I am wishing to die and then all of a sudden I didn’t want to die. Not that way.”

From that day on, Cruz started exercising again with whatever equipment he had at home. In one year, he lost 100 pounds. He eventually got the courage to get his life back together, go back to school and become a teacher. He also put exercising back in his daily routine. 

Today, Cruz is a teacher at Simon Sanchez High School and is working on his master’s degree to become a counselor and pass on the lessons he’s learned through his ordeal. “Don’t give up. ... You have to fight,” he says. “If I put my mind to certain things, if I really think about it, then I know I’m going to do it,” he adds. He hopes to influence others to do the same.

[Joy James]

One of the island’s most recognizable faces, Joy James, has been on television, competed in beauty pagents and modeled, but while James may be living the life that many little girls dream of, it was a tough journey to get to where she is today.

As a child, James described herself as an awkward and unpopular girl who was always picked on in school. “I had such a hard time with the girls and boys at school. I could never understand them and why they were so mean,” she says. 

James attended first through fourth grade in a small Christian school. She said those years were fun but in the fifth grade, things changed when she moved to a public elementary school. “I had a rude awakening about the real world,” she says. “I was so ugly. My appearance was so awkward and the fact that we didn’t have much money didn’t help my wardrobe much.”

She adds, “I was so skinny and lanky and totally underdeveloped. I had horrible teeth and big purple glasses.” James says school was anything but easy for her. “It was challenging and really hard for me to understand at the time.” However, James says the experience made her stronger and made her aware of others and their feelings.

When James turned 16, she says she started to change. “I finally got contact lenses and tweezed my bushy eyebrows and had a better understanding of clothes and makeup,” she says. “But, it was definitely a slow process, because my body was still pretty young. All the girls around me were making out with their boyfriends or having sex and I had no idea what sex was. So [even though] I started growing out of it, the awkwardness was still very much there and prevalent in my life.”

After graduating from high school, James dreamed of becoming a star and performing in front of thousands of people, but didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t think she would be able to do it. “I knew I could sing and I was tall and a lot people encouraged me, [saying] that I could be Miss Guam or be a model, but when I looked in the mirror, I remembered being teased.”

Although she lacked confidence, her faith gave her the courage to pursue her dreams. Years later, James has the following list of accomplishments under her belt: TV show host, Miss Guam Tourism, billboard and magazine model, commercial actress and singer.

James hopes that other girls can learn from her experience and have the courage to follow their dreams as well. “Take it one day at a time and find something in it that you can hold onto. Whether it’s a friend or a class or a sport ... just get saturated in it to pass the time and just let life come.”

[Troy Williams]

If you’ve lived on Guam for a while, then you’ve probably seen the blond-haired Troy Williams on The Visitors Channel promoting what the island has to offer our Japanese guests. While you may know him through television, you probably don’t know about the hard road he’s traveled.

At the age of 25, Williams was a healthy young man until he lost his leg during a diving accident. “I lost my leg scuba diving when I was drug into a thruster motor 20 years ago,” he says. When the accident happened, Williams was diving as part of his job as a submarine co-pilot.

“I was shaken up pretty good at the start, as you feel like everything you used to do is coming to an end,” he says. “But my friends pushed me and have never let me play the martyr.”

Many people would have given up on diving after such a horrible accident, but he continues to scuba dive to this day. He had a special fin made by DiveR to accommodate his unusual kick. Some of his friends even jokingly tell him that it gives him an advantage. “My nickname in the spearfishing world is ‘Lonefin,’ a name given to me by a long time friend Scott Russell. He laughed and says it was always easy to find me as a diver because there would only be one fin above the water before the dive. So ‘Lonefin’ has stuck pretty good.”

Williams has taken the accident in stride — even using it to pursue a path in marketing. “I took the time during my rehabilitation and physical therapy to study Japanese and apply this new skill set to my new career path,” he says. “Now, as vice president of business development for BIG Media and The Visitors Channel, I see that this choice gave me a huge competitive advantage. It is something that we all have in our lives, adversity, and if we use it to channel our energies into a positive and meaningful result, adversity can actually propel us into new directions.”

The biggest challenge that Williams has faced are the misconceptions people have about his condition, but there are many physically or mentally challenged people who excel in many different aspects. “All people want to be a meaningful and valuable part of our community and feel like we belong. As Erik Weihenmayer, the blind rock climber who scaled Mount Everest says, ‘People get trapped into thinking there is only one way of doing things.’”

Perseverance was his key to overcoming his disability. “We all have our hurdles to overcome and some are greater than others,” he says. “Don’t worry what other people think as they have their own obstacles, which have been put in their way as well. Focus on your own goals and strive to achieve them.”