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Garland Teen Gets Gift Of Life For High School Graduation

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GARLAND (CBSDFW.COM) - In this season of graduations and special gifts, a Garland teen is celebrating the most precious: life.

Isobel Tutor received her diploma from Lakeview Centennial during a special ceremony at Children's Medical Center Dallas earlier this month. The 17-year-old had been hospitalized for more than a month while waiting on a liver transplant.

And last week, her graduation gift arrived: a donor.

"You kind of don't want to wish for that because you feel like you're wishing bad luck on somebody else and their family," says Tutor. Although fatigued and still sore, she says she is "feeling really well."

She is also acknowledging the sorrow and the sacrifice that made her future possible.

"I think that's going to weigh on me, forever. I don't even know how I could say `thank you'."

With her eyes filling with tears, the aspiring artist and lover of all things creative says the experience has made her reflect on the fact that "sometimes people just don't survive."

Now that her future once again looks bright, Tutor hopes to study fashion design. She says she also plans to honor her donors' generosity by living well, and paying kindness forward.

"Everybody thinks they have to do something huge to standout, and the most important thing is to be like a big star and make some big show of something, " says Tutor. "I think people have forgotten the simple dignity of just living… they've forgotten that there's honor in just living."

This is the "A Liver For Izzy" Facebook page.

This is Isobel's page for donations for her medical expenses.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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