Cy Ranch Warrior: Teacher Fighting Breast Cancer

Cypress Ranch teacher opens up about her personal life and how she overcomes obstacles.

If you don’t know Ms. Kulp already you are missing out, she is one of a kind and you won’t meet anybody like her. She teaches chemistry at the back of the science hallway.

Over the summer, Ms. Kulp discovered some news that dramatically altered her life and who she is today. 

“I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer on June 13th 2019, and it didn’t make sense because nobody in my family has or had breast cancer.” It became one of the biggest changes in her life she is still in the process of learning how to balance her personal life and work “.It made me scared the financial burden dealing with the side effects from medication. I tried to balance work and all those things.” As soon as she was diagnosed she still has go to work even through all the pain and discomfort she suffers with. 

Ms. Kulp is strong and she pushes through it all; this obstacle in her life does not stop her from being her best and being an amazing teacher that she is. She continues to keep a positive outlook on her life“I am an optimistic person, I know that if I drop the ball everything will fall apart,” which keeps her pushing she says. 

Having breast cancer has affected her mentally and physically. “Physically… I lost my hair, my nails look horrible, my toes are numb, and I can barely walk. It is a lot of side effects from the medication because what they do is basically the chemotherapy, which poisons your body. My blood pressure drops. Unfortunately science is not there yet to know how to target cancer cells.” It also has affected her mentally, “It’s been a struggle to keep it together and juggle everything that’s been going on.” You wouldn’t even be able to tell the things she goes through because Ms. Kulp is confident in what she does. Having cancer has affected her negatively, however it has made her stronger. 

She describes herself as being resilient, “I would say that because so far cancer has took me down. I was able to pull through whatever adversities I had in my life.”

This is not the only major change Ms. Kulp has experienced in her life. Another big change was moving across the world and being able to adapt to new people.

“The first big change was coming to the United States. Different cultures, different mentalities… im originally from Romania and I came into the United States in 2001.” She adjusted to her new environment very well “It wasn’t hard because I had the advantage of already speaking the language, so I could interact with people.” She begins to describe the differences between Romania and the United States, but those differences hasn’t affected her drastically. Ms. Kulp can adapt to new changes no matter if it’s big or small.

Even through the hardships that come in her life, she still sets goals and accomplishments them for herself “My legacy is my life and my kids…” This is her 6th year of teaching and she hopes that through her years of teaching, she has affected all her students. “Everyone who I had in my class I hope I affected their lives in some sort of way.” Ms. Kulp thoroughly enjoys teaching chemistry. “I can mold the mind and the way that students view the world around them,” which she finds fascinating. 

Outside of school Ms. Kulp has a family and life at home “I have a good relationship with my family, the only problem is that we are far apart. My brother still lives in Romania, my sister lives in Pennsylvania, all I have here is my daughter and my son.” Although most of her family lives in Romania, she still holds a strong bond with her sister. “My sister is the closest person to me… we shared a lot of experiences, we love each other, and we know each other really well.”

In spite of the fact that Ms. Kulp has gone through a lot, she still wouldn’t change anything. “I don’t think I would change anything because everything that happened to me in my life made me who I am.”