Before she was shot in the left arm, Melisa McNulty was a sad girl so overweight she couldn't fit into some chairs or the seats of amusement park rides.

"All my life I have been unhappy with the way I look and my health," she said. "After the shooting, I was tired of being unhappy. I wanted to be a normal teen-ager."

She had gastric bypass surgery. She has lost 92 pounds. Her goal is to lose 150. Now, she can buy popular styles of teen clothing.

Melisa, a junior, not only worked at losing weight but also struggled to regain the use of her arm so she could play acoustic guitar and keyboards.

In initial physical therapy sessions, it was difficult to move even one finger. She practiced sign language over and over to strengthen her hand.

Now she can play guitar with the same agility she had before the shooting, strumming songs such as Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)."

The shooting, she said, "made me stronger in the end."

Melisa needs plastic surgery for the scar that stretches from her elbow to her wrist. But she felt confident enough in her appearance to recently pierce her lower lip to wear a silver hoop.

"I've always been overweight and always been picked on," she said, "but I would never think of doing anything to hurt anyone."