I still remember the moment I was rushed to a hospital! My mom was staying strong, I was tired, and the ambulance was just trying to keep things calm. I remember being told I had a stage 3 tumor. At that point, I already recently had another tumor removed off of my leg, so I thought that it was nothing. Little did I know, this was going to be the turning point of my life that matured me, opened new doorways, and also prepared me for real-world situations.
This Cancer did well to wake me up out of my dream by maturing me. I realized that I had to do something with myself. I could not stand the thought of passing away and having nothing to be remembered by. For a good 4 years, I have been pondering over what the heck I was going to do with my life. I read books on business, studied new languages, and acquired new skills. Though, I still remember how afraid I was in attempting to keep growing because the cancer I had was a stage 3 anaplastic ependymoma.
Consumed by fear at night, I researched survival rates, just looking for any little bit of confirmation that I’d be alright. Eventually, I gave up. I just said “screw it” and put all my studying materials down. I didn’t care anymore. Then something happened. Out of nowhere this fire, spirit you can also say, brought me back. I removed myself from toxic people, those doing drugs and just wasting the day sitting around doing nothing. I felt incredibly lonely at times, but I realized I was doing much better and life just kept putting me in front of the right people.
Now we are in the present day. I’m still studying, I can read and speak Japanese, and I’m looking for opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to me. You see, cancer, or any disease, is not a mark of the end of your life. It’s just an ordeal part of our life brought to us to see if we quit. Once you win, because to whoever is reading this, you will win, the hardest part is over. Other things in life may try to scare you, but trust me, nothing is scarier than fighting for your life.
The two most important things I want everyone to take from this is to never let anyone or anything try to stop you from living your best life and to always keep learning and growing in order to be better than you were the day before.
[mashshare]Tell others in our community about yourself and your journey, and consider sharing great moments and lessons learned to help them become MORE THAN cancer.
Experience inspiring stories from our patients, family caregivers, physicians and others.
Tell others about yourself and your journey; inspire them to be MORE THAN CANCER.
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