This story originally appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of ESPNHS magazine.

For Skal Labissiere, there's no time to lose.

He's been in America for fewer than 18 months, and his list of accomplishments is staggering. He's learned English and won a state championship, all while establishing himself as one of the nation's top basketball prospects in the Class of 2015.

Why the urgency? Because he knows better than most never to take a single day for granted.

***

Moments after arriving back at his house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after basketball practice on Jan. 12, 2010, Skal headed to the bathroom to wash up. That's when the earth began to shake.

He and his younger brother both ran to their mom, Ema, in the next room, where they huddled together as a magnitude 7.0 earthquake rumbled. As fate would have it, they were in the only room of their home that didn't completely cave in, but the wall they were leaning against began collapsing on top of them. A desk was the only thing preventing it from coming all the way down.

They were alive, but they were trapped.

"I was thinking, 'I'm about to die,'" Skal says.