Armless Teen With an Unbeatable Spirit

Feb. 8 -- Jessica Parks says there wasn't too much that was hard for her growing up. "I just learned to adapt and had my parents and my friends to help me on my way," she said.

Jessica's life has a lot to do with balance — the balance she's achieved in school, as both an athlete and a member of the National Honor Society; and the physical balance she has learned and trained for — playing on her school's soccer team, and flying into the air as a part of cheerleading routines.

The 17-year-old achieved that balance and all of these successes even though she has no arms.

Jessica is a senior at North Branch High School in southeastern Michigan. She came here as a sophomore and walked through the school's front door with an anxiety that went beyond the usual teenage uncertainties, and she waited for others to react.

"I was kind of really nervous; especially not having arms … I remember walking through the halls and just looking around. … I saw all these kids, they were all looking at me, and I was like wow, this is kind of scary."

The kids do notice. Then, they forget and wind up focusing on the remarkable abilities Jessica has displayed from her infancy, now to the verge of adulthood. That, to her friends, makes her a story worth telling, and an example worth remembering.

One Day at a Time

Jessica's mother, Yvonne Parmenter, says tests she received during pregnancy had not prepared her for what doctors told her shortly after Jessica's birth. "They said that she had a handicap — that she was born without arms. And they ran the gamut of testing on her. And everything else came back perfect," she said.

What the tests showed was that Jessica's condition was one of those rare circumstances — with no indications of a history or cause in her family.

Jessica's mom recalls, "Everybody said, you know, just, just focus on one day at a time, and one accomplishment at a time. And it will all fall into place. And it did."

She said Jessica tore up countless diapers because she had to scoot, rather than crawl, as an infant. "She pulled herself around with her little heels and scooted all over the floor."