Kendall Brasch - Making up for lost time

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Making up for lost time

Kendall Brasch is literally half the girl she was a year ago. Last January,
at 16, Brasch underwent gastric-bypass surgery. She has since dropped from
265 pounds to 128 pounds on her 5-foot-3-inch frame.

After spending the past few years too depressed to leave her parents' couch
on weekends, Brasch is making up for lost time on the high-school social
scene. Now a senior at Eastlake High in Sammamish, she has a circle of
girlfriends and goes to parties, shopping, and football and basketball
games.

It hasn't all been easy. Her surgically reduced stomach feels uncomfortably
full after eating half a sandwich, and she feels fatigued much of the time.
But "it's so worth it," she said.

In October, she shocked her family and herself when she danced in front of
the entire school at a pep assembly. "I didn't know I could have so much
fun," she said.

She's still shy around boys but is working up the courage to ask a certain
someone to the tolo dance in February. — Julia Sommerfeld