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Tapping trees in springtime gave Alicia Ashe something sweet to think about the last few years.

Her grandparents fired up a small sugaring operation behind their Keene Valley home, gathering sap with old-fashioned buckets stationed around the village as neighbors agreed to share their trees.

Drawing from those quiet hours watching syrup boil, Alicia wrote a poignant valedictorian address for Keene Central School.

She was nervous a few days before delivering the speech.

"It is like we were sap entering kindergarten," the quiet 18-year-old said with a shy grin. "And now we're the finished product. Our teachers and family have been waiting and watching, testing the syrup; it takes a lot of patience and hard work."

But the reward is special, she said, coming from a small town where community matters.

"It's just you can't make maple syrup everywhere," Alicia offered over a shrug. "And everyone likes their syrup different."

LIFE'S CHALLENGES
Indeed.

Leaving for Albany College of Pharmacy at the end of summer, Alicia will move away from the quiet valley home she shares with her grandparents.

She will leave behind years of learning how to thrive despite life's diverse, sometimes tragic, challenges. When Alicia was in third grade, her mother, Theresa Ashe, was killed in a car accident at an intersection near Marcy Field.

"She was coming back from work," Alicia said, remembering the day.

Extended family and community came together for the Ashe children then. Alicia's brother and sister, now 17 and 15, live with other relatives nearby.

Then in 2007, Alicia suffered a severe stage 3 concussion in a high-school soccer match when a ball slammed hard against her forehead. It wasn't until the next day in another game that Alicia fell, hit in the head a second time.

"I don't remember anything," she said.

The injury led to severe headaches, nausea and sickness that eventually put her in the hospital for tests and a CT scan; the medical images revealed a lump in Alicia's brain.

"They thought they found a tumor. It turned out to be a brain abscess, and my pituitary gland is bigger than normal, so they have to monitor it."

SOMETHING SPECIAL
The first semester was a blur that year.

"I wasn't clear until January (2008)," Alicia said. "And I'm not a person that doesn't like going to school."

But she didn't quit and returned to the soccer team last fall.

"I was pretty cautious out there," she admitted.

Pushing through despite the challenge, Alicia caught up in school, landing a grade point average of 90.56 at the top of the Class of 2009. But it is an achievement she shares.

Of 13 graduates, five have been together since kindergarten, and everyone else arrived in elementary years.

Alicia credits her family, classmates, school and community for constant and continued support, no matter what.

They never gave up on her.

It boiled down into something special in her life.

"I had a lot of help from my math teacher Mrs. (Susan) Gough," she said. "She just kept my head up. She helped me with all of the college applications."

And her grandparents have supported every decision along the way.

"They are excited for me to go to college."

The College of Pharmacy is five years of work ahead, but Alicia welcomes the challenge.

"I'm a little nervous to leave," she admitted.

But there's no question it sometimes takes more effort to make a little success.

"It takes 40 gallons to make one gallon of syrup," Alicia said.

But the sweet end result is worth it.

"It's valuable and rare."

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com