She was just a teen when she lost an eye to a rare form of cancer, had to wear an eye patch, and suddenly became a target for hurtful teasing.

On this episode of the Supercast, hear the incredible story of Columbia Elementary School kindergarten teacher Alexa Byrd. Find out how one middle school teacher taught Alexa to be proud of her eye patch as something that sets her apart. Hear how Alexa now tells her own students to take pride in their individual differences and how that message is making a difference in their young lives.

Audio Transcription

Alexa Bird:
It's just kind of been my motto now. It's like, "Why blend in when you're born to stand out?" And so I made the decision to get my eye removed. Now I have these fun prosthetics. This year I had a student, she in the middle of the year, found out that she actually had to get hearing aids. She looked at the doctor and said, "I'm going to have special ears like Miss Bird has special eyes." I just went home and cried.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She was just a teen when she lost an eye to a rare form of cancer, had to wear an eye patch, and suddenly became a target for hurtful teasing. On this episode of the Supercast, hear the incredible story of Columbia Elementary School kindergarten teacher Alexa Bird. Find out how one middle school teacher taught Alexa to be proud of her eye patch as something that sets her apart. Hear how Alexa now tells her own students to take pride in their individual differences and how that message is making a difference in their young lives.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
We're at Columbia Elementary today talking with Alexa Bird about her teaching and her pathway to becoming a teacher. Alexa, thanks for talking with me.

Alexa Bird:
Thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me first of all just about your teaching career. You're here at Columbia for your second year. Talk to me about how all that came to be.

Alexa Bird:
I went to school at Utah Tech University and I've always just wanted to be a teacher. Since the time I was little, people would be like, "What do you want to be?" And I was never like the princess or an astronaut or a pilot. It was always, "I want to be a teacher." So, I went to Utah Tech and I went through their program and then I went to the job fair. I talked to Jane Olsen there and the rest was just history. She told me, "Come to Jordan." And then I got a job interview and I interviewed here and it just felt right. And I loved the energy and the community and all the questions and just felt right. And so I said, "Yes."

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, good job, Jane, for finding Alexa. Tell me, why did you want to be a teacher when you started out at a young age? Why has this always been of interest to you?

Alexa Bird:
Well, my dad is a teacher and my grandma's a teacher. So I come from a really long line of teachers and I would go to his classroom. He actually worked at West Jordan High School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow.

Alexa Bird:
And I would be like, "I'm going to be a teacher one day," and pretending like I was him writing on the whiteboards and things. And then when I was going on with my education career in high school, I was diagnosed with medulloepithelioma, which is a cancerous brain tumor in my eye. I started finding that and I had to go to California every 12 weeks because there was no pediatric ocular oncologist in Utah. And so every 12 weeks I was going to California and I just... School was my favorite place and then it became my least favorite place really quick because not for anything except kids were really mean. They would make comments like, "Jeez, Alexa, don't stand so close. I don't want to catch cancer," or, “pretending like you have cancer, that's really rude. People die from it all the time where you don't have to pretend to have cancer to get attention.” Soon it just became my least favorite place. I felt terrible. I did radiation. So I was feeling so tired and run down because chemo doesn't really work above your shoulders and it was in my eye, so radiation was the only option at the time.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you had to have radiation throughout your body and you had to go 12... Every 12 weeks you had to go to California to receive it?

Alexa Bird:
My cancer is kind of rare, what I had. And so he's like, "I'm willing to try it if you are." So it was actually this special made plaque to fit right over my tumor and they pull the whites of your eye up and sew it right over your tumor because they couldn't just remove the tumor because it would mess up with your eye pressure and things. So the radiation was the only option and it was a one-time deal. So they put a lot of radiation in it and I'd wear it for 10 days to get it fast and quick and then take it off just as fast. But then you feel the effects for a long time after. But I had to go back for checkups.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So you said when you had cancer. So are you beyond that at this point?

Alexa Bird:
Yes. I'm cancer free as of a year ago because with childhood cancer, to be considered cancer free, it's five years.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow.

Alexa Bird:
I had to wait five years so I finally got it six years ago.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you have passed your five-year mark six years ago. Wow. So well congratulations on that.

Alexa Bird:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
It must have been particularly heartbreaking that your favorite place became your least favorite place.

Alexa Bird:
Mm-hmm.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me how it felt at that time.

Alexa Bird:
I just remember walking down the halls and I was like, "I have to put a huge smile on my face because at the time I thought, 'People can't see that I'm sick. People can't know that I feel terrible and I don't want to be hearing. I can't let them know that their little tiny jabs and their comments are getting to me." So I would walk down the halls with a smile on my face, walking down like I can't hear them whispering about me because at the time I could see the tumor. So I was wearing an eye patch so they would be like, "She's only wearing an eye patch to get attention." And so I would walk down and I would just like put my head down and smile if people talked to me. But I hated it and I didn't want to be there. And one time—

Anthony Godfrey:
It's exhausting to try that all the time, have to be trying to prove yourself or demonstrate to people that you really are okay even though you're not.

Alexa Bird:
I would go home and I would cry. I remember one time, after a particularly hard day, I was like, "I'm going to go home and I'm going to come up with every excuse and book and never have to come back to this place because I don't want to do it anymore." That was the day I was walking. I remember like it was yesterday, I was walking into math class and I was like, "I'm done. I'm done. I'm never coming back after today. Just get through the day." That's when my math teacher was there and she had this huge smile on her face. It's the kind of smile that's like, "You can't help but smile back." And she's like, "Alexa, just the person I wanted to see." I was like, "Oh, that's okay. That doesn't match my mood I'm feeling right now."

Anthony Godfrey:
So was this in front of the class?

Alexa Bird:
Yeah, it was right before the bell rings. So there were kids in there and it was just like the one minute before that everybody's like just sitting there waiting for the bell to ring. And I was like, I remember thinking, "Well, now I can't be grumpy if she's talking to me with a smile on her face. I can't help but it was the energy you can't help but matching." I remember looking at her and being like, "Yeah, I'm here." She had this box in her hand and it was filled with all different kinds of eye patches. They were like ladybugs and pink camo and sparkly. And it was just this whole box. She was like, "I drove all over town,” and we lived 45 minutes from Salt Lake. And she's like, "I drove into Salt Lake and I was looking everywhere for these for you." And she handed me the box and she was like, "You know, I've been thinking a lot about you." And it's like, "Why blend in when you're born to stand out? And you know, if you have to wear these eye patches, might as well have fun with them. You can match them to your shoes and your outfits and we can have a bunch of fun with this. So I bought this just for you.” I remember going, "Oh, wow." And from there, from that day, I would walk in with my fun eye patches and she'd be like, "Which one are you wearing?" And I'd be like, "They match my shoes today." Or, "They match my shirt." I remember she brought the joy coming back to school and she brought this... I wanted to be there. I wanted to go every day to show her which eye patch I was wearing in school. Some of the kids would catch on and be like, "Wow, I love your eye patch today." They still made those mean comments, but I loved going back to school again. And she was the reason. And it wasn't just because of the academics. It's because she genuinely took the time and showed me she loved me and I wanted to be there to be with her. It made what used to be this dark place, and it made me want to come back to school. And she doesn't realize how that little tiny impact impacted my whole life from that moment. It's just kind of been my motto now. It's like, "Why blend in when you're born to stand out?" I can teach kids that their differences make them special. And now I don't have to wear eye patches, but I have... Because when I was 17, the diagnosis wa...