It was January of my junior year in high school. Just an ordinary day in the life of Dillon. As soon I got out of school for the day I rushed through the hallways weaving in and out of all my fellow students. I hurried out the doors and got to my car as soon as I could, I didn’t want to be stuck in the sea of cars created by terrible driving high school students like the day before. My focus was to avoid as many people as possible and to get out of that place. This had been the worst part of my day so far, so all in all, it was a pretty good ordinary day. I drove directly home and took a rest in my bed for a little while after getting home. My mom got home from work shortly after I did. As soon as she walked in the door I asked her how her day had gone at work.
She replied, “I ended up leaving work early today, I had a doctor’s appointment that I just got done with.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you had an appointment today. How did it go?” I said.
Silence filled the room. I looked at my mom concerned and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Tests came back positive today….I have breast cancer.”
My heart sank to my stomach. I didn’t know what to do other than hug her. Uncontrollable tears ran down both my mom’s and my own face as we embraced each other in our arms.
This was the day that we first found out that my mom had breast cancer. An average day that was turned into a day of uncertainty and sadness. But fortunately, shortly after the initial discovery, the doctors found the lump of cancer and they were able to perform surgery to remove all of the cancer cells in her body. Or so they thought. All of the cancer was gone, but the type of cancer that was in my mother’s body was aggressive; more aggressive than the doctors originally thought. Chemotherapy had to be performed to ensure that the cancer would not come back. This was the hardest part of the entire experience for my mom, the rest of the family, and myself.
If you or someone you love has gone through chemotherapy you know that it is not an easy thing to get through. It has a very heavy physical, and mental effect on the one that is going through the treatment. It has lasting effects that can be with the patient for the rest of their life. It wears them down physically, it gets in the way of their everyday schedule, and it takes away their character. Going through this long enough can cause a household to completely change its way of life. Our household experienced this first hand. I did not like this change. I developed an attitude where I became disrespectful to my parents. I started to think, “This is not my fault, so why should I have to do more work around the house?” It got to a point where I started to get depressed. I slowly grew apart from my family. I was ignorant and selfish. This affected my family and made it a whole lot harder for my mom to want to carry on each day.
Long story short, I realized how dumb I was being. I finally became aware of the ignorance that I had. I learned that when someone you love as much as your mother is going through something as tough as chemo you need to suck up your own problems and be strong for them because the care, kindness, and understanding you give them can turn a bad day into a day worth living. In a way, I am thankful for this experience because in the end my family was brought closer than we had ever been before. God taught me a life changing lesson as well. He taught me that unending support from the ones we love is one of the most important if not the most important things in life. The ones you love are not to be taken for granted. Not today, not yesterday, and not tomorrow. You never know when they will breathe their last breath.
I leave you with this challenge. Starting today, love the ones around you as if they were going to die by midnight. Even the people you just met today. Reach out to them and share with everyone all the care, kindness, and understanding that you can possibly muster up. Do this with complete humility; no thought of any reward. You will notice changes in how you interact with people and how they interact with you. And you may just make someone’s struggle a little easier. You may give them a reason to keep fighting their battles. You may turn their bad day into a day that is worth living. Your actions will greatly affect your life, and those around you. Your life will never be the same again.
“Do everything in love.” – 1 Corinthians 16:14
