Cancer,
I want to thank you for all the good you have done for me and my family. Yes, you tried to weigh us down. You attempted to break families and friends apart. You tried to take our loved ones from us. You aspired to bring heartache, anger, and frustration into our lives. And yes, you sometimes won. But, you have given us all something you didn’t expect.
You made my sister sick when she was 11. I was 14. You wanted us to cry. We did. You expected us to be angry and confused. We were. But, because of you, I fully realized the importance of family. I would never have become best friends with my 8 year old sister or discovered the importance of hard work. Without you, I would have may have become a snobby, self-important teenager. I wouldn’t value the little moments such as when we could get through an entire movie or family dinner without my sister being too sick and having to go upstairs to throw up and lay down. I probably would have thought something like “breaking a nail” was a real problem.
You helped introduce me to many charitable, kind, and amazing people, some of which have formed into lifelong relationships. I know a few married and engaged couples who met because of you. My mom met one of her best friends at an event for kids who have cancer. You bring out the best in people. Our great friends, the Clarks, snuck into our house while we were gone one afternoon and put up an extra wall in the loft, creating that third bedroom my parents had wanted to build but at the time couldn't afford.
With all the time I had to spend at the cancer center or at home, I became creative. I had fun in ways I didn’t expect. I was forced to use my imagination in a million different ways. What could I do to keep my mind off the awful situation, to keep my youngest sister entertained, and this imagination helped to create "Sister Dance Parties" and "Faries in the Front Yard." That imagination helped me in high school and I still employ it today in college.
You like to scare us, you need us to fear you. You came into the world believing people would eventually give up fighting you. Wrong. It’s fear that motivates us. We are too afraid of losing our family and friends to stand back and let you win. So, we keep learning how to fight.
We recognize what’s important in our lives, and it’s not our high school GPA or how well we play sports. What is important are our friends and our family. Thank you for helping me to appreciate my loved ones.
One day, you will lose. We won’t have to fear you. But until then, I admire your courage.
Thanks for helping me become a better human being, for inspiring my sister to become a nurse who can help others, and for bringing my family together. There are millions of people out there who hate you and I can’t wait until you’re gone. So, keep wasting your time trying to destroy us because often you give us more good than you do bad.
Sincerely,
One of those you tried to hurt
