‘I refuse to put myself in a prison of cancer’

OVER THE years, I have met many cancer victims who are stuck in a breast cancer world. It is also part of my world, but I refuse to put myself in a prison of cancer. I cherish each moment my feet touch the ground. I know someday they won’t, and until that day comes, I want to experience all that I can. I have so much to give, first to myself, then to others. I fought and survived cancer with a strong sense of purpose by making better choices. Better choices put us in the best positions to help others and to support our children and grandchildren. Albert Einstein said, “Mind management is essentially the key to life management.” We all have the power to choose. Steve Jobs, after his cancer diagnosis, said, “Your time is limited, so do not waste it living someone else’s life.” This means, that to be a cancer warrior, you must have the courage to live your best life to survive the disease.

UNFAIR EXPECTATIONS

So in life, how do we handle difficult situations? Do we get what we deserve, or do we get what we get, like cancer, and learn to deal with it? More often than not, things will not go as we expect and people will not live up to our expectations of what is fair or unfair. Superficially, it may seem that life is indeed not fair, but the truth is that it is our expectations of life that are unfair and our inability to accept that unpleasant things and difficult situations will happen no matter how we try to avoid them. Problems will appear and signify our need to make changes. How we solve problems and what we become thereafter are what make the difference. Cancer warriors must support each other, become stronger, more educated, and more powerful than our noncancer warrior counterparts. Strength breeds power and the responsibility to use it to work for the good of ourselves and others. It does not make sense to have an experience, learn from it, and then regret that it happened. Cancer may enrich your life beyond your wildest dreams with triumphs and successes. My career grew beyond expectations after a diagnosis of cancer. My personal story of becoming a warrior, now 31 years after breast cancer, allowed me to alleviate the fear of cancer and to become a victor. IF IT WASN’T FOR MY STRUGGLES, I WOULDN’T HAVE KNOWN MY STRENGTHS.