It’s funny how quickly our lives change. How quickly a storm catches. How quickly tranquil seas become churning, bubbling, roaring beasts right before your eyes. You never see it coming. You never expect it, or even think it to be a possibility, and then it happens.
It's pretty typical for us as human beings to blind ourselves to the world's greatest challenges. This can certainly be said true for myself, as I have spent a good 17 years of my life believing that the stuff you see on TV would never hit home.
My best friend of nine years was recently diagnosed with AML, a rare form of Leukemia that appears in less than 200,000 U.S. citizens yearly. Cancer isn't in the average 18 year-old's plan, and it couldn't have been more of a shock.
You never know when it's going to be you, and it's scary to think that it really could happen to anybody. Her visitors will ask, "How are you doing with all of this, Cortney?" and she'll just respond, "Good! I mean, it sucks, but I'm not worried. I know I can beat this thing." She truly is the most positive person I know.
"It's amazing how fast the perspective of life can change in a matter of seconds," she says. Perspective really is everything. Watching my best friend smile and laugh regardless of the cancer coursing through her body was inspiring. We spend too much time looking at what's missing in our lives than appreciating what we have right in front of us. We wallow too often over what we can't control instead of charging forward, headstrong.
I believe that everyone has a plan and I know now that these plans don't always dish out what you expected. You won't always see it coming, you won't always be prepared or understand why it happened to you, but, in the grand scheme of things, none of that is important. It's really about being able to accept new outlooks, start new beginnings, obtain a better attitude, and create stronger goals.
That's what you don't see on TV. You see the tragedy, but very rarely do we get a glimpse of the strong, courageous, determinants behind it all. According to George A. Sheehan, "Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be," and for Cortney, that is cancer free!
