Student trades loneliness for leadership and confidence

Hannah Goff. Claire Convis | Washtenaw Voice

By Claire Convis
Staff Writer

Diagnosed with a disease that forces her to keep a distance from those who understand what it’s really like, Hannah Goff has dealt with feelings of loneliness throughout her life.

Goff and her older brother were both born with Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic respiratory disease that affects every organ of the body.

Goff is a WCC student who had to withdraw for the semester because of her illness.

“I have friends with CF but I’ve never met them; I can’t hang out with them… so I had nobody to talk to [about CF] besides my brother,” Goff said.

CF patients can’t be around each other because sharing different bacterias can make them sick. Because Goff grew up with a sibling who also had CF, they mostly grew the same types of bacteria.

Joining an in-school group called Reaching Higher in high school helped her to gain confidence and feel less alone.

Goff didn’t bring up CF in the Reaching Higher group for the first several weeks, until one week when the topic was about stress.

“You had to talk about what is stressful in your life… I got up there and started talking about how my brother was getting sicker… during that time he was being evaluated for a transplant, and I just broke down and sobbed,” she said. “After I was done, everyone just came up and hugged me…they said that I was inspirational and they had no idea that it was going on.”

After her Reaching Higher graduation, Goff returned as a student leader. She mentored four girls and guided them through the course.

Goff said that the parents of the girls came up to her and thanked her for investing in their daughters, and told her how their kids would come home after school talking about their group leader.

“That made me feel so warm inside, because I felt like they were my kids,” said Goff.

Being a full-time college student while at the same time battling a disease that can land a patient in the hospital for months at a time has many everyday challenges. Goff has spent many hospital stays studying 3×5 cards and submitting homework online.

“She has many, many challenges, but she’s got such bravery and courage. She’s selfless, she’s driven, she’s tenacious… I can’t say enough about her,” Susie Dalhmann, founder of Reaching Higher, said of Goff.

“One time I missed a test because I was in the hospital, so I had to go to the testing center to make it up,” said Goff. “I had pneumonia, and I don’t usually wear oxygen, but I couldn’t even walk around the house without it.”

Goff had a portable oxygen supply backpack that she brought to WCC, but she mentioned that sometimes the oxygen machines have rules of their own.

“You have to breathe a certain way so that it knows that you’re getting oxygen, and if you don’t breathe that certain way then it will beep,” said Goff. “It was beeping so loudly, and you can’t turn it down… people were looking at me… I was just thinking to myself ‘I have to take this test, I have a normal life like everyone else, I’m not excused from these types of things.’”

Alexis Karolak met Goff in a geology class last fall.

“Hannah doesn’t use her condition as an excuse to skip responsibilities, and I think that shows her true character and motivation,” said Karolak. “It’s just really inspiring that she doesn’t let anything stop her, even if she is in the hospital more than most.”

Goff mentioned that “Five Feet Apart,” a film released this past March about two CF patients (played by Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson) is mostly accurate as far as medical procedures and treatments go.

The lovebirds wandering around the hospital, hanging out with other people and throwing a surprise birthday party in the cafeteria, however, is not so accurate.

“You’re pretty much confined to your room,” said Goff.

Many people in the CF community criticized the film, saying that the teen love story romanticized the disease. But Goff pointed out that the movie helped raise awareness for CF.

“Movies are not 100% real. If there was a movie that was literally following me around the hospital, nobody would watch it; it would be boring! They’d be like ‘Dang, this girl does nothing!’” Goff said, laughing.

Goff was studying elementary education at WCC, but recently decided to pursue a new career path: cosmetology.

She said styling her hair or putting on makeup is something that helps her feel better when she’s at the hospital.

Goff was accepted into an apprenticeship at a nearby salon, and she looks forward to the new experiences, new faces and the one-on-one interaction that cosmetology will bring.

“Once you feel good about yourself, it just changes the feeling of your whole day,” Goff said. “I just love that feeling, and I want to help other people feel the same way, too.”

Goff said she hopes to visit children’s hospitals and do kids’ makeup or hair for a day.

“When I was younger, this lady came around the hospital and she was doing these sticker nails [for the patients],” said Goff. “Something as small as that can make somebody’s day turn around.”

“If we had more Hannah Goffs in the world, we wouldn’t have to worry about a better tomorrow,” said Dahlmann. “She has a real passion to help other people and to make her life matter.”