Mason Hegardt, senior, used to consider himself an athlete. He started out playing every sport he could possibly play, from soccer to lacrosse to basketball. But in seventh grade he was hospitalized for extreme stomach pain that turned out be pancreatitis and stomach ulcers. After eleven days, the doctors diagnosed him with Crohn's disease. To his dismay, he was no longer able to play sports after that because of his joint pain.

Instead he decided to pour himself into music and dance as a plan B and has since then been in three honor choirs and won numerous dance battles throughout downtown Portland. Besides music, Mason likes to work on cars and aspires to be a mechanic after high school, if his music career doesn’t work out.

“Anything school related is not my cup of tea. If I had to pick any subject that I feel will benefit me in the long run, it would be science because it is one of the more useful subject and  he feels that science teaches you stuff you should know,” he said, frowning at the thought of school. Though he has gone through all of this hardship, Mason still has goals for his life, "if I could become famous somehow I would love to become a musician and do that for the rest of my life," he said. Next year in 2016, Mason plans to try out for the primetime TV show “America’s Got Talent.” If he does happen to make it onto the show, he says that will give him the motivation to keep pushing and trying to further his musical career. Mason plans to use his life experiences to gain exposure for his talents.